A Week in The Life
by AnneM.Oliver
Summary: Her life seemed so grey. She was once the brighest witch of her age & now she just feels lost & alone. Can one week in her life change everything,& can one person, who was once her enemy, teach her to feel again? Can they fall in love in a week? Dramione.
1. Day One Friday

**A Week in the Life**

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**Chapter 1: Day One Friday**

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**Week one, Day one** -

**Friday Afternoon -**

Grey walls. Grey walls and grey floors. Were the floors even grey, or were they merely a forgotten by-product of an infrequent cleaning? No matter. They might as well be grey. Her whole life felt grey.

She sat at her desk in her little grey office in sub-level four of the Ministry of Magic and pondered such things, such as her grey life. She did not even have a title. She did not even work in any specific department. What she did was research for any other department that was in need. The smartest witch of her age stuck in an office the size of a broom closet, with grey floors and walls, doing research for other employees in important departments, who actually had jobs that made a difference. What joy.

What led her to this place? During school, a war was going on, but her and her friends tried their best to go on with normal lives. Harry needed her help with his fight against Voldemort. When the light side won the war, she finally felt as if she could go back to school. Her friends got through the war, mostly unharmed, most of them alive.

It had been three years since the end of the war and five years since she finally graduated from Hogwarts. She graduated at the top of her class. She went on to University. She intended to become a teacher. She had hoped she could teach at her old school. Well, fate had other plans. Her father died one year after her graduation from Hogwarts of a heart attack. He was only 45 years old. She had to leave University to be with her mother. After a few years, her mother went back to her dental practice. Therefore, Hermione went back to University.

Six months after she went back, she got a call from her mother. Her mum had pancreatic cancer. Hermione went home to take care of her mum. Two short months later, her mother was dead. Hermione never went back to school. So there she was, five years after graduation, four years after her father's death, and six months after her mother's death, without a formal education and in a dead-end boring job. No family, no boyfriend, no significant other. Her life was just so grey.

Sure, she had great friends who loved her. Harry married Ginny seven months ago, after both finished Auror training. Ronald married Lavender Brown just three months ago and was a manager of one of the shops owned by his brother George. They had grown up lives and grown up jobs and were moving on. She had no one, a boring job, and a life that just stayed still. There was a time, not so long ago, where she felt like her life had purpose; a meaning. Now she was just a visitor in her own life, just passing through. She was sure if she should ever feel happiness again, something cruel would come along and take it from her. Wake her up. Tell her she just was not worthy. Tell her she only deserved the grey life in front of her.

George Weasley rented her a tiny apartment over one of his shops. Well, she was not really renting the flat. She tried to pay rent, but every time she paid the rent he would sneak the money back into her flat somehow, so she just gave up. Harry helped her find a job at the Ministry, where she had now worked for four months. Percy Weasley was the Minister of Magic, and he told Harry that it was a waste of Hermione's talent and brains to give her some meager position, but since she had no formal training and no degree, he really did not have anything for her at that moment. Harry pleaded with Percy, and since most people don't say "no" to the man who saved the whole Wizarding world, Percy agreed to take pity on the poor girl and make a position for her somewhere. Yes, he made up a job just for Hermione Jean Granger. She went to work doing research for other people and reporting directly to a wizard named Quinn O'Brien.

O'Brien was not too happy that the Minister insisted that he take on another employee, just because she was best friends with the "Boy who lived". He didn't care if she grew up like one of the Minister's own family, or that her best friend was Harry "bloody" Potter, or even if she helped take down the Lord of Darkness. No, he resented it like hell, and everyday he made Hermione regret the day she came to work at the Ministry. If he could make her resent being born, that was even better. He treated her worse than if she was a house elf. He gave her thankless jobs, like colour coding files, or cross-referencing counter jinx and their causes. Occasionally she did do some interesting research for some other department, and they always thanked her, praised her, and told her boss what a great employee she was, which only served to make him hate her more. Today, he got a third memo from Draco Malfoy about her, and he was so angry that he made her alphabetize the files on all the known Death Eaters who used spells against non-magical creatures. Her life was indeed grey.

So there she was on a Friday afternoon in her little broom cupboard/office, alphabetizing files and listening to all her co-workers talk about their exciting plans for the weekend. That was when Miss Hermione Jean Granger the Grey cracked! She literally and physically cracked. She started crying and just could not stop. She cried all over the blasted files. She didn't even get up to shut her door. She didn't care anymore. At that moment, she felt the whole world was going to swallow her whole and she did not care, because she did not want to be grey anymore.

Draco Malfoy was walking down the corridor of sub-level four, to find Quinn O'Brien. He had talked to the Minister of Magic about transferring Hermione Granger to his department. She helped his staff out tremendously one month ago. They needed some research done on a potion for a counter curse for an ancient hex that no one had seen in over 100 years. They had been working on this potion, for this counter curse, for months, when someone suggested they talk to Granger. Granger came up with the proper counter curse in only two days. Therefore, he went to Percy and demanded that Granger come work for his department. After all, didn't the Minister state that her talents and brains where being wasted in her present position?

Malfoy did all the proper transfer paperwork, and sent an inter-departmental memo to her boss, this O'Brien fellow, to inform him of her transfer and to see when he might release her to her new job. After one week with no word from her boss, Malfoy sent another memo. Now it had been two weeks and still no word. This was bloody unacceptable. He sent a third message and still had not received a response. No response at all. He was going to find this O'Brien fellow and give him a piece of his mind.

Draco joined the Order of the Phoenix after he went on the run after Dumbledore's murder. He became a spy. He actually got to work closely to the "golden trio" during the second war. He could not say that he became close to them. No, Potter and Weasley always kept him at arm's length. Granger was even more guarded with him. He would sometimes catch her looking at him during meetings and he went on more than one mission with her. However, they never really became friends. She never fully trusted him. No matter how many times he proved himself.

Now that the war was over, Draco was working at the Ministry as the Head of the Potions Department. He really didn't need to work. His parents left him a lot of money when they died. Nevertheless, he did go back to school and obtain his Potions Master's License, so he decided that he might as well do something with his life. In addition, if he was perfectly honest with himself, for which he very rarely ever was, he wanted to work at the Ministry to be close to Hermione Granger, and to prove to her that his life mattered.

He knew she was still hurting from the death of her mother. She was probably still hurting from the death of her father. While the deaths of his own parents were merely a minor footnote in his life, he realized that the deaths of her parents had drastically changed her. He heard from mutual acquaintances that she had indeed become quite unhinged as of late. Here was the brightest witch of their generation, it hurt him to admit as much, and she was wasting her life, her career, and her future.

Well, no matter. He hated the way the rest of the former Order members would talk about her in hushed tones. "Oh, poor Hermione this, and poor Hermione that." Come on, girl, pull up your bootstraps and get back on the bloody broom already. He wanted to tell her "Life's before you, not behind you." If he had his say, everyone would stop coddling her and slap her right on her 'Know-it-All' face and say "WAKE UP"!

He remembered actually having somewhat of a crush on her in school. She was smart, (better grades than his grades), pretty, and a loyal friend. Of course, she was also a "Mudblood". To be honest, that shite didn't concern him anymore. It used to, it really did. Not anymore.

He remembered how small and weak she appeared at her mother's funeral. He hadn't gone to her father's funeral, since it was right after the war, and he was not yet friends with her (for lack of a better word), but when her mum died, he went to the funeral. She probably didn't even know he was there. She probably didn't even know SHE was there. She had her face in Potter or Weasley's shoulders during the whole funeral.

Shortly after that, she went to work at the Ministry, and Draco went to work there as well. When he talked to Percy Weasley about bringing her on board with his staff, Percy thought it was a brilliant idea. In fact, Percy told Harry, Ron, his family, and just about everyone else that they knew that it was his plan all along that she work in the Potions Department. Yes, Percy took credit for the whole idea. Draco didn't care whose idea it was. He just wanted that bastard O'Brien to give Hermione a release date, so she could start her new position. Since Draco gave the son of a bitch two weeks to contact him, he decided to wait no longer and to find this man and demand that he release Hermione now. Surely, this little "made up job" for this inconsequential O'Brien fellow was not that important. Certainly, Hermione was anxious to start her new position in an important department like the Potions Department.

Just as Draco was rounding the corner on sub-level four, he heard what sounded like a muted sob. Someone was definitely crying. Not loudly. There were no wails, just small, sad inconceivable sob. He looked for the cause of the crying, even though he was already sure he knew the source. He stopped in front of a door that looked like an opening to a broom closet, except it must be an office because it had a desk and a chair. Grey walls, dirty grey floors, and definitely a desk and chair. Behind said desk was the source of the crying. With her head on her arms, and her arms on the top of her desk, was Hermione Granger. He knew it was she before he saw her. Now that he saw her, he thought his heart might break.

"Granger?" he asked.

No answer.

"Granger!" he demanded again.

She looked up at him. Oh no, she thought. This was not what she needed today of all days. Her life just kept getting greyer and greyer all the time. There was Draco Malfoy, standing in the doorway of her little office, in all his beautiful glory, and he was witnessing her emotional and mental breakdown. She put her head back down on her desk and continued to cry.

"Granger? What the hell's going on here? Tell me why you're crying," Draco demanded again, as he knelt down beside her desk.

"Go away, Malfoy. Please. Leave me alone. I just want to be left alone," she said between sobs.

"No, Granger, I won't go away. I came down here looking for O'Brien, but then I heard you crying. Now for goodness sakes woman, tell me what happened."

"Really, Malfoy," Hermione answered, "Nothing's happened," she continued, while wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "Just go find O'Brien. He should be in his office."

"Listen, I really do need to talk to him, but after I'm finished with him I'm coming back in here and you will tell me what's wrong. We may not be the best of friends, Granger, but you really can talk to me, okay?" At this, Draco turned to leave Hermione's office, took one last backwards glance at the pretty witch with the red eyes, and he wondered what in the world could have happened to make her so upset.

She nodded 'okay' to his last statement, to signify acceptance to his offer. All the while thinking, what a handsome and kind man he had become. He started back down the corridor and he heard her head hit the desk once again and she started to cry even more.

He stormed back into her office, again knelt down next to her desk, took a hold of her two small hands in his large hands, and he said, "I know we haven't always been close. Hell, we're not even really friends, but we're not exactly mortal enemies anymore, either. I would like to think that you could count on me if something's so wrong in your life that you can't even go one minute without crying. Tell me, Hermione; tell me right this instant, what in the blazes is wrong with you?"

She looked down at her hands in his and looked back up into his grey eyes. Grey. He had grey eyes. Once they were as cold and grey as her life presently felt, but now they seemed warm and inviting. She wondered…could she really confide in this man? This man that was a first class, pureblood bully in school, and who became a Death Eater, and tried to kill their Headmaster. True, he had changed. He did many good things for the Order during the war. Still, could she confide in him? Would he really want her to do so? She pondered these things, looked once more at their entwined hands, and in a very quiet voice, said one sentence: "My life is so grey, Malfoy."

**Later Friday Afternoon-**

'What?' Draco thought. He frowned at that statement. Before he could ask her what in the world she meant, her boss walked through her door.

"Granger! Aren't you through with those files yet? I could have had a trained monkey finish this in the time it's taken your sorry arse to complete," O'Brien yelled. At that moment, he finally looked up from the paper he was reading and saw that Hermione wasn't alone, not by a long shot. Draco Malfoy was there. "What are you doing here, Malfoy?" he asked, just as Draco stood from his position beside Hermione's desk.

He turned and looked the older man directly in the eyes. "Actually, O'Brien, I came down here to talk to you personally about Hermione's transfer to my department, since you've seemed to have been ignoring my memos for the past two weeks," Draco stated.

Hermione looked at Draco's face to O'Brien's face. To what was he referring? What transfer?

"Draco, my good man," O'Brien spat, trying to lighten the mood, seeing that he was actually a bit intimidated by the younger man, "Come to my office, and we can have a talk. I guarantee I was not ignoring your memos. I would like to talk to you about this privately."

"Wait!" Hermione interjected, now no longer sobbing. "What's going on here? What transfer? Transfer where? Who's being transferred? What's going on here?"

"Never mind, Granger, just get back to work. I want this finished before you leave tonight, and for goodness sakes, stop that infernal crying. This is a place of business, not a damn therapist office!" O'Brien yelled at her.

Draco took a long look at Hermione. He could tell that she really didn't know about her new job. That damn bastard hadn't even told her about the transfer. He looked back at the stupid wanker and bellowed, "You didn't even tell her, did you, O'Brien? Well, no matter, it's happening whether you want it to or not. The transfer was approved by the Minister himself, so you can ignore all the bloody memos you want – but this transfer is happening!"

"FINE!" yelled O'Brien. "I didn't tell her, are you happy now? I didn't intend to tell her, because I intended to make sure this transfer didn't happen. There's no way this bloody little bint is going to get a promotion with more money, a bigger office, and a bloody title, if I can stop it in anyway. This is not fair! I've worked here for ten long years. If anyone gets this promotion, it should be me! Why should she get this promotion? Just because of whom she knows, or should I say whom she sleeps with? No way!"

Well, 'ouch' thought Hermione, that one hurt, but before Hermione could say as much, she saw Draco pull his arm back, about to hit the man. 'No!' she thought, please allow me.

_SLAP!_ Her hand flew up and she slapped her boss squarely on the left cheek. Draco turned to look at her in complete shock. Wasn't that something? Now there was the Hermione Jean Granger he knew and loved. He quickly turned to O'Brien, and saw a red handprint already embedded on his cheek.

"How dare you!" her boss howled.

"No, how dare you!" she yelled back, all previous traces of tears now completed vanished. "How dare you insinuate that I got my job by sleeping with somebody? First, I'd like to think that if I did sleep with someone to get a job, it would be a better job than this one!" (Draco had trouble containing his smirk at that sentiment), "Second, how dare you not tell me about this transfer! How dare you interfere with my life! Third, I don't need this bloody job. You're correct, sir, a trained monkey could colour-code files and alphabetize hexes, so why don't you find one, because I quit!"

'Bravo', thought Draco. He turned to look at the older man with a lopsided grin and a raised eyebrow and said, "Yeah, what she said."

When the shock subsided from O'Brien's face, he finally spoke, "You can't quit, because I'm firing your arse. Furthermore, I fully intend to prosecute. You assaulted me. There's a witness!"

Hermione huffed in anger, grabbed her purse from her desk drawer and her jumper off the hook on the wall, pushed Draco to the side, shouldered O'Brien out of the way, and without a word to either man she ran down the hallway and didn't look back. Draco leaned out of the door to see her retreating figure, but instead of following her, which he knew he should do, he turned to the man in front of him and spoke.

"Listen here you fat, ugly stupid, poor excuse for a wizard! You actually cannot fire Miss Granger, because she works for me now. In addition, there were no witnesses to any crime, not as far as I see. You WILL NOT file charges against Miss Granger, because if you do, you'll answer to me, and believe me, I've taken down stronger men than you, and have come up smelling like roses. Furthermore, you pompous, overgrown troll, if you so much as speak to Miss Granger again, or even look her way, I'll see to it that you don't live to see another day. Don't forget, you're dealing with a former Death Eater here. I still have plenty of friends in low places."

"I'm not afraid of a little, reformed Death Eater!" O'Brien stuttered, although he looked quite scared indeed.

Draco leaned into the older man, laughed one little laugh, and with a voice so low it was almost a whisper said, "Who said I was reformed?"

The man now looked terrified, and with Draco's threat still hanging quite large in the room, he leaned onto the desk behind him, for his knees were shaking, and said, "Fine."

"Well, isn't that just grand, then. So nice doing business with you, O'Brien, old man. I knew if I came down here and talked to you personally, you'd be reasonable." And with that, Draco slapped the man on the shoulder, perhaps a little harder than he should have, and left the room.

The first order of business was to find Granger. He had absolutely no idea where she might have gone. He would have to go find Potter and see if he knew where she might have gone. Draco didn't even know where she lived. Deciding the lift was too slow, Draco flew up the four flights of stairs to level two, ran down the hallway to the Auror Department to Harry's door, and stormed right in. "Potter, we may have a problem!"

**Friday evening -**

She didn't know where to go. She didn't want to go back to her flat. Surely, by now, word had gotten to Harry about everything that had happened, and while she loved him, and he was her best friend in the world, she didn't think she could face him right now. She couldn't go see Ginny, because, well, the whole Harry thing again. There was no way she could deal with Ron right now. Therefore, she decided just to walk, but frankly, she was tired. She didn't really want to walk anymore. She didn't want to run away anymore. She didn't want to do _anything_ anymore. She didn't think she could take even one more step. She could go one place. However, with the terrible mood she was in, wouldn't going there just make her mood even worse? 'No matter', she thought, as she took her wand and just disappeared.

Two seconds later, she appeared in front of her parents' graves. Her mum and dad were buried in a Wizard graveyard. When her dad died, her mum figured that Hermione would probably one day marry a wizard, and her grandchildren would probably be magical as well, so it made more sense for her husband and her to be buried in a Wizard graveyard. Her mum even bought ten plots, for the big family Hermione would have someday. 'Yeah, right,' Hermione thought. Who would have known that just four years after lowering her husband in the grave, Hermione's mum would soon follow.

Hermione sat on the ground in front of her parents' headstone and began to cry again. She thought of the day they buried her father, and then she thought of the day they placed her mother next to him. She looked at the names and dates of births and deaths on the smooth black granite. **_"Beloved parents of _****_Hermione_********_Jean_****_ Granger",_** it said directly below their names.

"Mum, Dad," Hermione started speaking; "I miss you both so much, and I love you both so much. I feel so lost and alone. How did my life get so off track? I was always so independent when you were alive, and now that you're both gone, I truly don't know what to do. I lost my job today. I'm so ashamed. I'm sorry. I know you had so many hopes and dreams for me. I must be a terrible disappointment. The thing is, and it's so shallow to say this, but sometimes I feel like if I just had one person who deeply loved me and whom I could love in return, so many of the wrong things would turn right again, you know?" Hermione stopped talking, started crying again, and slowly lowered herself further to lie on the ground.

Draco didn't know where to look for her. Potter, Weasley, and the Little She-Weasel, turned Mrs. Potter, were looking all over for her. 'Leave it to them to find her', he thought. After all, they are her friends, right? She probably didn't regard him as anything more than a person she merely knew. What would he say if he did find her anyway? "Way to go, Granger. I forgot how good you were at slapping people." Surely, she wouldn't want to see him. He just would stay where he was. Then again, he actually had a hunch were she might have gone and he highly doubted that "Scar boy" and "Weasel bee" would even think of this place. Maybe he would just go check it out.

He arrived just as she first sank to the ground in front of the grave. He heard every single word she cried to them. She looked so sad and pathetic on the ground, in front of their graves, crying her eyes out. If Draco Malfoy had a heart, which according to most debates he did not, but if he did, it was at that moment breaking, for her.

It took him another five minutes to decide if he should let his presence be known. He felt like he was witnessing her deepest and darkest moment. Almost like the baring of her soul. Should he go get Potter? Potter was good at all of this "emotional crap". Draco was not. What could HE say to her? At that moment, Hermione made up Draco's mind for him, when she sat back up and without even turning around to face him, said, "What, Malfoy? No jokes about the Mudblood down in the mud? Oh, wait; maybe you didn't come to make jokes. Maybe you came to make fun of me, or to kick me when I'm down. That's what you've done our entire life. Go on now. Get it over with."

Draco started walking the small distance he stood from her and began slowly to clap his hands together, as if in applause. "Bravo, Granger! Well done in deed. Not even sure I would have come up with such a knife welding remark to someone when they were standing at the mouth of utter despair." He stopped applauding, and she turned to face her audience. "I mean really, Granger, I'm so surprise you think so little of me, that you think even I would kick you when you're down. After all, I might be a ruddy bastard, but at least I'm not a pathetic emotional wreck, like you, and might I add, I didn't assault anyone today; you did. However, if you want to take out all of your pain and anger on me, go on, girl. I've gotten worse. I'm a big boy, and I can certainly take it, especially from someone like you."

She rushed up to him and pushed him. Pushed him with all of her might. He hardly moved. Then she slapped him. Slapped him harder than she had ever slapped anyone before. He just stared at her. Then with one last cry, she took both her fists and started to hit him in the chest. She screamed, "Go to hell! Go away from me. Far away. I hate you! I don't want you here! Go away!" She hit him one last time and he still didn't move. He had absolutely no expression on his face. She could not take it anymore. She was so tired. She put both her hands down to her sides, and just leaned into him, with her head against his chest. She started to cry again. "Help me, Malfoy."

"Hermione," he said softly, thinking all the while that her name sounded strange coming from his mouth, "just cry. I don't care. I'll not judge you. Hit me and I'll not hit back. Things just look bad right now, but they're not as bad as they seem. Believe me, it'll get better."

She looked up to him, and said, "Nothing can make it better. You have no clue about my life. Please, go away. I'm not up to a verbal duel with you right now. In case you've not notice, I'm having a terrible day. Go away."

"Granger," Draco began, "you just asked me for help, and then you tell me to go away. Which is it?" She started to walk away from him, when he grabbed her wrist to make her stay. "Okay, listen, you might be having a bad day, I mean, I don't even know why you were crying when I first came into your office, but to tell you the truth, you really should have felt a lot better after you slapped that bastard O'Brien. Also, you should have felt a hundred times better after you found out about your new job. If you're worried about him firing you, I'll tell you what I told him, you work for me now, not him, and if I'm not going to fire you for just hitting me, I'm certainly not going to fire you for hitting him. Additionally, if you're worried about being prosecuted for assault, I think I can promise you that will not happen."

She sighed and looked at his hand, which still held her wrist. "Please, let go of my wrist, Malfoy," she said in a steady voice. He promptly let her go and watched her walk over to a stone bench and sit down. He walked over and joined her. They were sitting so close, that they were almost touching. She said, "So, I work for you now?"

"Well, yes, I guess you do," he told her.

"What are you playing at, Malfoy?" she asked. "I don't have my potions degree. I didn't even finish University. Why would you want me to work for you? What do you really want?"

"Again, I congratulate you, Granger. You figured me out. I went out of my way to get you a job in my department, approved by the Minister of Magic himself, and it certainly has nothing to do with your brains, or your talent. No, I did it just to mess with your mind." He poked her forehead with his index finger. "That's the type of bloke I am."

"Seriously, what could I do for your department?" she asked, as she peered up at his face.

"Well, I do have a lot of files that need to be colour-coded, and I hear you're better than a trained monkey at alphabetizing things." He looked at her with all seriousness, at this last remark.

"Go to hell, Malfoy!" she barked and pushed him off the bench.

"No thanks, Granger, already been there, too hot for my taste," he stated, as he got up from the ground. "Oh, and by the way, these are new trousers, and I'll be sending my cleaning bill to you." He sat back beside her and turned halfway to look at her. "I really don't think you should tell your new boss to go to hell. I know you have a history of assaulting your previous supervisors, but there'll be none of that with me, so please no more pushing me to the ground."

"Malfoy, I'm serious! Why do you want me in your department? Cut the crap, and just tell me out right," she pleaded.

"Right, well, remember a month or so back when you came up with that counter curse for that hex, for my staff? We worked on that for two whole months, and couldn't come up with anything. We asked you to work on it, and in two days time you figured the whole thing out. Hell, you spent most of our years in school being the brains of the 'golden trio'. There's no telling what your intelligence and magical talents could bring to my department. Not to mention, you were no slouch with potions and healing spells in school, and during the war. I'd be stupid if I didn't offer you a job, and believe me, no matter what you think of me, I AM NOT STUPID!" He yelled that last part, while pointing at her.

She paused for a second, looked at Draco, then the ground, then at Draco, and finally she said, "No, you're not stupid, but you are an egotistical, arrogant, spoiled brat who made my school years utter hell. You always considered me lower than the dirt on your shoes. You called me 'Mudblood' more times than I can count. Even during the war, when you were supposed to be on our side, you barely regarded me with even a word or recognition. Work for you? I would no sooner work for you than I would go back and work for O'Brien."

She stood to leave, but Malfoy stood just as quick. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her back to face him, and yelled, "How sad, Granger! BOO Fucking HOO. You hate my guts. Like that's a big surprise to me. Do you really think that your stupid, petty, little words have any affect on me at all?"

"Listen to me, and listen well, because I'll just say this once. I'm not proud of what I did to you in school, but you know what, Granger, I was a kid. That was a long time ago. I'm no longer that person. I've not called you 'Mudblood' in probably five or six years."

"I tried to be cordial and even friendly toward you while we served in the Order together, but you could never get past my past. That's your problem, not mine. I didn't offer you this job out of charity. It'll benefit me. That's right, I'm still selfish. So take the job, or don't take it, but get out of the past and grow up for goodness sakes! You used to be smart. You used to be attractive and intelligent and, and, well, I don't know what else, but this poor me act has got to go!" While he was yelling at her, he was shaking her shoulders.

"Where's the girl I used to know and hate? Why have you given up on life, Granger? It's not given up on you. Stop all the self-pity rubbish and just be thankful for what you have. Grow up!"

"Oh no! " Hermione screamed, as she brought her hands up to knock his off her shoulders, "You will never manhandle me again, Malfoy, and do you really want to know where the girl you used to hate is? I will tell you! No! I'll show you."

She walked up to parents' grave and pointed. "There, Malfoy! That's where she is, dead and buried in the ground along with her dead parents, and along with them is buried her hopes and dreams and her future. This person in front of you, right now, I don't even know who she is. She's just an empty pathetic shell. She's inconsequential!" she yelled as she poked him in the chest.

She continued. "You, you're still alive! You're just the same. She's dead. What you see in front of you is NOTHING! While we're at it, Malfoy, where the hell did the old Malfoy go? You claim you're no longer that person, but prove it to me. I don't see proof that the pompous, mean, pureblood that I hated all my life is gone. I think he's still here, right in front of me!"

"And who the hell are you anyway, Malfoy?" she went further. "Why do you care? You're not obligated to me. My happiness doesn't depend on you. Please, please, just go away!"

"Okay," he said, very slowly and deliberately, "okay, listen to me, because I'll only say this once, and I'll try to use very small words so you can understand. You want to know where the old Malfoy went, right? Well, he's in the exact same spot that you claim the old Granger is. He's dead and buried in his parents' grave. He died with them and all the old pureblood garbage that was ingrained in his head for the first seventeen years of his life."

"You want me call you Mudblood now? Well, I can't do it. I just can't. You want to believe I don't care. Well, I do, so help me, I do. How do you think I even knew you were here, Granger? Because, I came to your mother's funeral. I was there when they buried her in the ground. I saw you, and so help me, all I thought was 'if only I could help her'. I didn't think 'oh goody, the Mudblood bitch's mum died.' And when I saw you crying in your office today, I didn't think 'oh joy, the Mudblood is miserable!' All I could think was, 'what can I do to help her?' The thought of you being sad and miserable, made me sad and miserable. Why? I don't even know, but if you want the old Malfoy back, then that's too bad. He's long gone. This is the Malfoy you get now. This is the real me, but I know for certain, Hermione, that what I see in front of me right now is not the real Hermione. And I know it is not too late for her. She can come back. I want her back and I think you do, too."

_SLAP! _She pulled back her hand again and it connected soundly with his cheek. 

Well, that was unexpected. What did this woman have with slapping people? It was certainly a bad habit that she needed to break.

**Later Friday Evening -**

She didn't mean to slap him again. She just didn't know what else to do. She just wanted to shut him up. His words were too truthful, to bold, to revealing, and that scared her. She looked at his cheek, which was starting to get red, after all, it was slapped twice in one day, then she looked at her hand, and for the first time in her whole life, she really was without words.

He looked shocked. Shocked and surprised. His mouth was actually opened, as if he wanted to say something more, but he was afraid she might slap him again. What should he do now?

What should she do now? She walked back over to the bench and sat down. He walked back over to the bench and sat next to her. She felt more sad and alone than she had all day, and that was saying something. She also felt incredible guilt. He was actually being kind to her and she said all those horrible things to him and slapped him (more than once). What was worse was that he was right about every bloody thing. She couldn't cry anymore. There were no more tears to be had.

She looked up at his face, he met her eyes, and she said, in the smallest of voices, that he almost couldn't hear what she was saying, one little word, and it was, "Sorry".

He stood up. He contemplated what do to next. He thought she actually apologized to him, but he wasn't completely certain. His ears were ringing from being slapped twice, so he might have misunderstood her, also, she spoke so softly. He turned to look back at her, sat down next to her, and then uttered one little word back to her…"pardon?"

Did he seriously not hear her, or was he being a prat? No worries. Either way, she deserved this. She should have to say this again. He was so close to her that they were almost touching. She looked at his hands, and placed her left hand on top of his right one, looked him straight in the eyes and said, "I said I was sorry. I am, too. I am so very, sincerely sorry."

What was he supposed to do with that? That was more unexpected than the second slap. He contemplated what he should do. He turned his hand over, and grasped her small hand in his large one, and said, "Yeah, me too, Granger, me too." She didn't pull her hand away. That surprised him. That was a good sign.

She let him keep her hand in his. Truth known, she really needed some human compassion right now, even if it was from him. Anyway, he had changed. She really did know that to be the truth, whether she acknowledged it or not. "So…apology accepted by both of us, huh, Malfoy?"

"Excuse me, Granger; I seem to be partially deaf in this ear. I was just socked a good one a few moments ago, and I think there's some permanent damage. Could you repeat that just a little louder and maybe with more meaning?" He smirked at her.

"Prat!" she said with a smile as she pushed him off the bench again.

"Well now THAT one I heard." He laughed as he got up off the ground. "Seriously, Granger, for a little thing, you're quite strong. Oh, and expect my cleaning bill in the morning." He offered her his arm, and she stood and accepted his offer.

As they started walking, arm in arm, she looked up at him and said, "I really am sorry, Malfoy. Thanks for being my whipping boy today. Thanks for the job as well. If the offer still stands, I'd like to take the position. I promise you no more bodily injury."

"I'm going to hold you to that one, Granger. Hold on now; let's get out of here. We should go find your friends. They're all out looking for you, and are probably worried," Draco told her.

"Hey, Malfoy," she began, "how did you know to find me here?"

"I guess I know you better than you think, Miss Granger," he said as he looked down at her.

"Oh," she said softly. With that, he took her hand, tucked it into his arm, and together they apparated back to the outside entrance of the Ministry of Magic building, entered arm in arm through the atrium, and headed toward the lifts.

Draco and Hermione walked off the lifts on sub-level six. They walked down the corridor to the Potions Department. Right before they reached the main doors, Draco turned toward Hermione, and said, "I just realized, you probably need to go back down to your old office and collect all of your personal effects; photos, and things. It's pretty late, so I doubt any of your co-workers are there."

"No, there's nothing there. I don't want to ever go there again, okay?" she responded. She looked up at him; he smiled back at her, and winked. "Also, I wouldn't want to risk seeing O'Brien. I'm still not convinced he's not going to prosecute me for slapping him."

"You mean the 'slap heard around the world'? No, he'll not prosecute. I already told you that," he reiterated.

"How can you be so sure?" she inquired.

"Let's just say that I alluded to the fact that I may still be a Death Eater, and if he so much as looked at you funny, he would have to answer to me and all of my little Death Eater friends." Draco smiled.

"You brainless idiot!" Both hands came up to her mouth in shock. "Now he'll probably have both of us arrested!" she exclaimed as she punched him in the arm.

Draco feigned pain, as he brought his hand up to rub his arm, and then laughed and said, "What happened to your promise of no more bodily injury? Anyway, if we're both arrested, we can share a cell in Azkaban. With you by my side in prison, Granger, I won't have to worry about being picked on by the bullies, and I'm certain I would never be bored. Now then, shall we?" He gestured toward the doors and again offered her his arm.

She looked at his arm, looked at his face, and then said, "Yes, we shall," as she once more accepted his pre-offered arm and they walked through the doors.

**The Potions Department, Friday evening-**

They walked side by side, in silence, through a set of wooden double doors. Malfoy used his wand and the whole place became illuminated with light. There was a very large open area with many desks, all facing different directions. There were file cabinets, bookshelves, and a large table toward the back with perhaps chairs around it, next to the wall. Directly to the left was a conference room with another large table and chairs. Draco escorted her through the large open area to a long hallway. On one side of the hallway was another set of double doors that said, "_Laboratory"._

He opened these doors and said, "This is the actual lab. The storerooms are directly at the end of this room. A bloke by the name of Scott Cohn is the head Potions Master. You'll meet him on Monday. You have a lot in common with him."

"Oh, why is that?" Hermione inquired.

"Well, he's Muggle-born, too," Draco replied.

"Of course," Hermione feigned with fake sweetness, "all of us Muggle-borns are so much alike. It's almost hard to tell us apart. Seriously, Malfoy, could you make a more ignorant statement?"

"Ha! Granger, I was actually trying to be funny. It's called sarcasm, but alas and alac, I forgot that you have absolutely no sense of humour at all, so I'll try to refrain from saying anything humorous in the future," Draco labored with a roll of his eyes. "Oh, and on a more serious note, since you're always so serious, I'm the boss around here, so try to be a bit more professional and maybe a little less, shall I say, hateful toward me in front of the rest of the staff, okay?"

"Of course, Malfoy, I'll only act hateful and heinous toward you in private. Will that make you happy?" she responded sweetly.

"Incredibly happy, thanks. Now on with the tour. Directly across from the Lab is the research department. That's your new area. You can peek in there if you'd like and then go on down this hallway to the end, and you'll find my office. I actually need to go floo your friends and tell them you're safe, and then I'll meet you in my office. Go on, shoo." He pushed her in the direction of the research department.

She watched him retreat toward the area they had just left before she walked into the research area. She was amazed at what she saw. The room was every bit as large as the laboratory they were just in, except instead of tables, cauldrons, beakers and vials, it had four small desks with chairs, and wall-to-wall book shelves on all four walls. At the end of the research room was another set of double doors.

She crept closer to those doors, opened them, and looked around. She spied a nice size office, with warm red walls (NOT GREY), in-laid tile floors, and a large cherry desk, a small round table in the corner with two chairs, and a marble fireplace and two large bookshelves on either side. There was a cream colour sofa on the wall opposite the fireplace. It even had a private bathroom. It was certainly a beautiful office. She stepped back out of this office and walked back to the hall, down to where Draco said his office was located.

At the end of the long hallway was a massive set of doors. She timidly pushed the doors open and gasped at what she saw. This office was bigger than her entire flat! Painted green, 'how cliché,' she thought, (Slytherin green), it had an expansive oak desk directly in the middle of the opposite wall. There was a black granite fireplace at the end of the room, and at the other end were windows that went from the ceiling to floor. Since they were underground, she assumed they were enchanted, because it appeared to be late evening outside the windows.

There was a large black sofa on the wall with the windows, and a conference table on the wall opposite the desk. This office also had a private bath, and there were several large bookcases in there, with hundreds of books. She walked over to closest shelf, saw a book that looked interesting, and took it over to the couch and sat down to read.

Draco came in his office to find Granger on his couch with a book in her hand. Instead of reading the book however, she was holding the book precariously in her hand, with her head on the armrest, fast asleep. "Funny little Gryffindor," he murmured softly.

She looked very pretty while she was sleeping. Somehow, he thought, she looked prettier asleep than she did when she was awake, but that was probably because she wasn't talking. That observation almost made Draco laugh aloud. He walked over to the couch, leaned down, put one hand on her arm and said, "Um, Granger, do you want to see where you'll be working now, or would you rather continue your nap?"

"What?" she asked with surprise. "I was reading. I wasn't asleep."

"Sure you weren't," he laughed. She stood up and went over to the shelf to return the book, when he said, "You know you can take that book home if you want to finish reading. It's from my own personal collection; it doesn't belong to the Ministry."

"No, that's fine. I can finish it some other time. I know where to find it if I want," she answered. The thought that she might come back to find the book another day made him somewhat happy inside. Why? He wasn't sure.

"Well, let's go back to the research area," he stated as he led her out of his office. He placed his right hand on the small of her back, to escort her down the hall. It was such a little gesture, but to her it seemed so intimate, and for some reason it made her heart flutter. "This is where you'll be working," he stated as they re-entered the room they were in previously.

"Which is my desk?" she wondered aloud.

"Your desk?" he inquired.

"Yes, well, I mean, I assume I'll have one of these desk. I can work out in the main area if you'd rather. I don't need much space, as you could tell from my last position," she stammered.

Draco had a confused look on his face, and then all of the sudden he realized what she thought and he smiled widely. "You are truly one of the silliest little things I have ever met. I really don't see how you function in everyday life. You won't be working at one of the desks out here. You'll be working in here." And with that said, he motioned toward the office where she had previously been.

'No way' she thought. "No," she said, "I can't work in here. I saw this office. It's too nice, too big. It can't be my office. No." She was shaking her head as he was physically pulling her into the office.

"You're so funny, Granger. Of course, this is your office. Your staff will be working out here."

"MY STAFF?" Hermione felt nausea. "No, Malfoy, my goodness, if people thought I had to sleep my way into my previous job, what will they think now?"

"Listen, Granger, if it'll make you feel better to sleep with me, I mean, make you feel more deserving, I'm certainly up for that, but in all honesty, who gives a hoot what people think. You're a smart and hardworking witch, and you deserve this job, end of discussion," Draco finished. "Now then, Granger, if you don't mind, it's very late, probably past your little bedtime and I have dinner plans tonight, so if you don't mind, could we leave now and continue this discussion Monday at work, at 8:00 am sharp?"

"Oh, yes, sure, sorry, Malfoy. You have plans, and I've been such bloody pain this afternoon. I'm sorry, and yet, I'm also grateful. I just can't believe that a day that started out so, for lack of a better word, so grey, would end up so…oh…I don't know, just so, great, you know?" She looked down at the floor the entire time she said this, but Draco knew that she was truly grateful.

"How very articulate," he joked. "I'm happy that you're happy," Draco said sincerely. On a lighter note, he added, "Oh, and by the way, if you could have seen your face when I suggested that we sleep together, well, let's just say; priceless, Granger, absolutely priceless." He laughed and she looked over at him, raised both her eyebrows, and smiled a genuine smile for the first time all day.

How could a day take such a drastic turn, from horrible to wonderful? It didn't make any sense that in just a few hours her life turned completely upside down. She had a new office, a new job, and not a stitch of grey in sight! Even if her new job meant she had to deal with Malfoy, somehow, that thought didn't seem as horrible as she thought it would.

Draco turned to leave, and Hermione took one last look at her new office and turned to face him. He smiled the sweetest smile at her, she leaned closer to him, stood on her tiptoes, supporting her weight with one hand, and while leaning on his arm she reached up and kissed him on the cheek. The same cheek she had twice slapped, just that day. She leaned back away from him, just as quickly as she leaned into him, and smiled the sweetest smile that HE had ever seen.

He put his hand up to his cheek, and said, "Let's go, Hermione." With that, they walked arm in arm again, back to the entry foyer of the Ministry and then they went on their separate ways.

_End of Day One_


	2. Day Two Saturday

**all characters belong to JKR**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Day Two Saturday**

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**Day Two - Saturday**

**Early Saturday morning, Hermione's flat-****  
**  
Hermione awoke the next morning just as the sun was starting to peek into her window. She could tell it was just shortly after dawn. Too early to wake up really, and yet, she could not get back to sleep if she tried. Her mind was just spinning, thinking of all the events of the last 24 hours. What a rollercoaster. What started as one of the worst days of her life became one of her best. Moreover, she was not totally convinced that the reason yesterday became what she was so eager to classify as "one of her best" was solely because of her new job. No, if she really wanted to analysis it, she would categorize yesterday as one of her "best days of all times" because of one reason and one reason only: Draco Malfoy.

She started to giggle to herself as she sat up in bed and swung her feet to the floor. Did she actually have a crush on Malfoy? Did she "fancy" him? Ha! That thought made her actually grin. It felt good to have those feelings again. She had not fancied anyone in quite a long time. Now, Hermione was a smart witch, in fact, as smart of they come. She was not going to gloss over the fact that Draco certainly did not entertain any feelings for her in return, and, that was all right. It really was. She knew her feelings would never be reciprocated, but it didn't mean she still did not feel them.

She got up, showered, dressed, and fed her cat, Crookshanks. She then proceeded to make herself some breakfast, when she was interrupted by a knock on her door. Goodness, only 7:15 in the morning and she already had a visitor. She concluded that it was probably Harry or Ron, checking to make sure she recovered from the events of yesterday. She went to her front door, opened it, and looked around. No one was there. Odd. She went to close the door and was surprised to find an envelope taped to the door that read, "_Open me_". She opened said envelope and saw a note that read:

"_Enclosed is my cleaning bill. Please remit_."

Attached to the note was a cleaning bill for one pair of trousers. What was this? Then she slowly remembered Malfoy's threat to send her a cleaning bill for his trousers. Seriously, he was a wizard! He could just take out any stains with magic. There probably weren't any stains on them anyhow. She walked back to her kitchen after closing the door and then threw the whole note, cleaning bill and all, into the trash bin. She started to make herself some tea and toast, when she heard….KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

No bloody way. "Really now, I am trying to make my breakfast," she said to no one in particular. She went back to her door, to find another envelope taped there. The outside again read, "_Open me_". She opened this envelope to find another note that read:

"_Just in case you tossed the other bill in the trash bin, here is another. Please remit. Yours truly, __Draco__Malfoy__".  
_  
There was another bill attached to this note. She took a step out of her door and looked around. She lived on the second floor, but her door was directly over an alley. She took a few steps down her stairs, looked down, and saw no one. She balled up this note, and threw it over the porch railing down to the alley below.

What started as a funny little joke was starting to irritate the hell out of her. If he sincerely thought that she was paying for a pair of trousers to be cleaned, he was sorely mistaken. She slammed her door shut and started back to her kitchen. She just reached the kitchen when she heard the doorbell. Well, at least it wasn't another knock. She opened the door with a huff, and this time instead of seeing a note, she saw Draco Malfoy, in the flesh. He had an envelope in one hand, a pair of trousers over his arm, and in his other hand was a bag with coffee and muffins.

"Hey, Granger." He walked in to her flat as if he owned the place. "I figured I had better hand deliver this third bill, seeing how you disregarded the first two." He walked into her kitchen, handed her the envelope, laid the trousers on a chair, and started to lay out the coffee and muffins on the kitchen table. What nerve. Maybe she didn't fancy the git after all.

"Listen here, Malfoy. I'm not paying any cleaning bill, so just get that notion out of your head," she stated.

"Muffin?" he asked.

"And furthermore," she continued, acting as if she hadn't even heard him (even though she did want a muffin), "If these are the trousers in question, I'm sure I can take out any stains that might be present." She picked up the trousers from the back of the chair, while he sat in the other, and examined the pants in question. "You prat, I don't even see any stains on these!"

"Aren't you hungry, Granger?" he asked, as he took a bite of a muffin followed by a swig of the coffee.

"Yes I am hungry. I was trying to make myself breakfast, when I kept getting interrupted by someone at my door," she barked loudly. She sat down and threw his offending trousers to the floor.

"Let me examined these trousers, Granger. Are you certain that there's not even a small stain, perhaps on the left cuff? Hum, it would appear you're correct. I don't see any offending stains or dirt either. Perhaps my drycleaner was merely trying to hoodwink me. Well, I'll have to have a talk with the offensive man, yes I will. Trying to take advantage, I say. Good thing I have you to look out for me isn't it?" he said sweetly, while folding his trousers and placing them on an empty chair.

Hermione started to eat her muffin, when something occurred to her. "Hey, Malfoy, how did you know where I lived?"

"You're an employee of mine, so I took home your employee file last night to examine, and really, Hermione, you should be ashamed - written up three times due to tardiness. Well, that won't fly with your new boss, I can assure you," he said as he stood to clear her table.

"First, DRACO," she said rather loudly (after all, her called her HERMIONE); "I was never late at my last job. O'Brien would always find any excuse to write me up. One of the so-called "late" arrivals was for three minutes after eight! Just three minutes!"

"Three minutes late is three minutes late, Granger," he responded with his usual smirk. "But, I can see that you've learned your lesson and won't be late again, correct?" He patted her head, as if she was a child, or perhaps a collie.

Just as she was about to tell him how she felt about being "petted" Draco yelled, "God, Granger, is that offensive thing still alive?" He pointed directly to Crookshanks as the fat old cat came into the kitchen to curl up in his bed.

"Yes he's still alive! Apparently! Don't you dare say anything bad about my cat, Malfoy, or I'll have to hex you! I love him very much, and he loves me," she yelped as she leaned down to stroke the ginger cat's ears. "Tell me Malfoy," she began, as she stood back up and faced him as he leaned against her kitchen counter, arms crossed. "Tell me, why you're really here this morning? It surely wasn't for your trousers, and I highly doubt it was for breakfast. In addition, isn't it a bit early to be visiting? How did you know I would even be up this early?"

Malfoy laughed and said, "Gee, Granger, way to make a person feel welcome in your, I don't know, do you call something this small, a home? Let us just pretend for two minutes that you have some manners, and say, 'thank you, Malfoy, for the wonderful breakfast and for gracing me with your company'. Would that kill you, Granger?"

Hermione grumbled to herself, but then she said, "Thanks for breakfast you arrogant, snobbish, first-class git."

"Now was that so hard?" he asked. He pushed himself away from the counter and looked directly in Hermione's eyes. He had a smile on his face, and his eyes were twinkling. She regarded him with suspicion, but took a step back, since he was so close. "Do I make you nervous, Hermione?" he asked sweetly.

"No," she responded almost silently.

He took another step closer to her, and she took another step back. She was now up against the wall. He put one hand on each side of the wall next to her head, leaned in, and said in almost a whisper, "I think I do."

The truth was he _did_ make her nervous. She could actually feel his breath on her face, he was looking at her with almost closed eyes, and she felt her whole body tingle and the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up. She ducked her head under his right arm, ran out of the kitchen door, and started down her hallway.

"Really, Malfoy, you don't have any influence on me. Just excuse me for one moment," and with that she rushed into the bathroom and closed the door. 'STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!' she thought. "You're so stupid," she said to herself. "Running into the bathroom and locking the door will certainly convince him that he doesn't make you nervous!" Right? Wait, did she lock the door? Oh no, she didn't and as she looked at said doorknob it started to jiggle.

He opened the door, and before he could step in, she slammed her whole body against the door, causing his right hand to be smashed between the door and the frame. "AHH!" he yelled. Now he was yelling some obscenities, while hopping up and down, and holding his right hand in his left. "Granger! You stupid bint. You smashed my hand in the door!"

"I am so sorry, Malfoy!" she winced as she stepped out in to the hall, "But, how did you know I wasn't going to the loo or something. You just caught me by surprise when you tried to come into the bathroom without knocking."

"Well excuse me, you idiot, but I thought it was rather obvious that you were just hiding from me in there. OUCH, Granger. My hand really hurts like hell," he moaned as he sat down on the floor of her hall, and cradled his right hand with his other.

She knelt down next to him and said, "May I have a look at it, Malfoy?"

"No! You're probably going to break my whole hand off. Just leave me alone!" he responded sharply.

"Oh, you big baby, just let me see your hand. I'm actually quite talented with healing spells. You said so yourself last night." She sat beside him and took his right hand into both of hers. She very gently examined each finger. He continued to wince and whine, which made her say "Sh" a couple of times to hush him. As she continued to examine each finger on his hand, he began to study her face. She was so pretty.

"You know, Malfoy, I really don't believe anything is broken, but if you would allow me to get my wand, I could do a spell that would take the pain away." When he didn't respond, she looked up at him, and while still holding his hand, she asked, "Well?"

He took his free hand and brushed her hair out of her face. He then took the backside of the same hand and lightly brushed it down her cheek. "Ask me again why I came here this morning?" he said almost breathlessly.

"Why did you come here this morning, Malfoy?" she asked, almost holding her breath.

"I wanted to see your pretty face again," he answered back. He then smiled at her. True to form, he had to ruin one of the sweetest moments of her life by interjecting, "Of course, if I had known you were going to go back on your 'no bodily injury' promise from last night, I would never have come. Now go get your wand and heal my bloody hand this instant, Granger."

Prat. Draco Malfoy was nothing but a prat. She stood to get her wand, walked down the hall to her bedroom, took one last look at the man sitting in her hallway, looked him directly in the eye, and said, "PRAT." Then, as she turned to enter her bedroom, the biggest smile she had felt in a long, long time graced her face. What Hermione didn't know was that as soon as she entered her bedroom, Draco Malfoy also had a big smile on his face, and for probably the same reason.

After Hermione healed Draco's hand, he made some feeble excuse about having places to go, and people to see. Hermione's feelings were close to being hurt when he started toward her front door, but then he turned and said, "Have dinner with me tonight, Granger." It was more like a statement, than an invitation.

She looked down at the floor, and then said, "If we have dinner tonight, we're liable to become sick of seeing each other before we even start working together." She wanted to give him an easy out, just in case he didn't really want to have dinner with her. She looked back up to his eyes, and said, "Anyway, you already fed me breakfast today. Not trying to fatten me up, are you, Malfoy?"

"Gee, Granger, if I didn't know you any better, I would say you were one of those girls that go around searching for compliments like 'you could never be fat' or some such trite. Since I know you're not one of those girls, I will assume that you don't want my company anymore, and I'll bid you adieu," he rambled on as he turned to walk out her front door.

"Well, Gee, Malfoy, since I DO know you so well, I know that you're just trying to make me feel guilty. You're probably now expecting me to rush up to you and say 'you're right, I was fishing for a compliment, and I would be honoured to dine with you', but I'll just assume that you're secretly happy that I gave you an easy escape from your invitation, and I will bid YOU adieu!" With that, Hermione shut her front door in his face.

She started back toward her kitchen and sat down at her table. He left his trousers on one of her chairs. She would have to burn them, she decided. Just as she was standing to retrieve his pants from the chair, she heard her doorbell again. She went to the door and opened it, and for the third time that day, there was an envelope on her front door. She looked around, and he was already gone. She took the envelope, opened it, and read:

* * *

_Dearest __Hermione__, I'm sorry that I'm always a prat. No, let me rephrase that. I'm sorry that you always call me a prat. However, in regards to dinner, I really would love to see you again tonight. You're not fat. Not at all. In fact, I think it is now my responsibility as your new boss to 'fatten you up a bit', as you're much too thin. I will arrive for you at __7 pm__. No place fancy. Just do up your hair a bit and wear a nice dress, or don't wear any dress at all. I will leave the fashion part of the date up to you. See you at seven. Yours Forever, Malfoy_

* * *

How did he keep doing that? She took the letter inside and read it again. She grinned to herself and said to Crookshanks, "Well old fellow, I guess I have a DATE tonight. A date with Draco Malfoy!"

Hermione went out shopping that afternoon. She was very tempted to call Ginny to have her come help pick out a dress. After all Ginny was good at these types of things, but she didn't really want her friends to know that she had a date with Draco tonight. Did she really have a date? With Draco Malfoy? How strange that thought seemed. He was once her mortal enemy, if that was possible, and now she had a date with him. It was a date, right?

"Well now you're just over thinking things, old girl," she said to herself, while trying on the fifth dress that afternoon. She was in the dressing room of an upscale Muggle department store, and she was trying on another dress when a terrible thought occurred to her…Draco was so good-looking, so posh, and so high-class. There was NO WAY Hermione could ever compete with that. She was very likely going to make a fool of herself tonight. He would look beautiful and elegant and have high-class manners, and she would look like a fake. All the pretty dresses in all the high-class department stores in the world could help her. She sat on the floor of the dressing room and started to cry.

After five minutes of crying on the floor of the dressing room, (and after the sales person finally came and asked her to please leave) Hermione went home, sat on her couch, and tried to get the courage to floo Malfoy to cancel their dinner date. She sat on the couch most of the afternoon, wavering between canceling and not canceling. Finally, her mind was made up for her when at six in the evening her doorbell rang.

"Boy, he's early," she said aloud. When he saw that she was still in the same jeans that she had on earlier, he would deduce that she was not going out with him and he would leave. After all, she never really agreed to go anyway. She opened the door, not to find Malfoy, but to find a box with a big red bow. She picked up the box and went back inside.

There was another blasted note on top of the box. It read:

_I thought you might have a difficult time deciding on what to wear tonight (even though I know I told you it was "clothing optional"), so I took the liberty of picking something out for you. I hope it fits. See you soon, Draco. _

She opened the box to find the prettiest periwinkle short cocktail dress that she had ever seen. It had an empire waist, with a low-neckline and capped sleeves. It had a flowing skirt with netting over satin. It was even her size. This was much unexpected.

She dressed in a hurry, and put her hair up quickly. She put on her nicest high heel shoes and inspected herself in the mirror. Maybe she wasn't the prettiest witch, but she thought she was all right.

At exactly seven, there was another knock at her door. She put on a light shawl and ran to the door. She opened the door expecting to see Draco, but instead she saw a note on the door. Not again! She looked around once more and didn't see anyone, so she took the note off the door. It was probably an apology. An, "I'm sorry, Granger, but after careful consideration, I decided that I can't stand the sight of you." On the other hand, maybe it was even something crueler than that. Maybe it said, "HA! HA! Mudblood, jokes on you, made you get all dressed up for nothing. A Malfoy would never be seen with a Mudblood."

As she contemplated the note, she felt a tear come to her eye. He probably **_was_** canceling. She didn't even want to read the note. She threw it down on the floor of her bedroom and sat down on the bed. She kicked her shoes off and just sat there. What was she supposed to do now?

There was another knock on her door. NO! This was not right! She would not let this go on another minute. She was not amused. She was a person with feelings and she was not going to play any of Draco Malfoy's games. She fell back on her bed, stared up at the ceiling, and started to cry. About three minutes went by when she heard another knock. She was not going to answer. Another two minutes and there was more knocking. "That's enough!" she yelled.

"Granger, answer the door please. I know you're in there. I just heard you yell. I also saw you get my note off the door earlier, so please answer," Draco yelled through the closed door. When he got no response, he started to get worried. "Granger, open the door now, or I'll be forced to let myself in, and after what happened today when I tried to let myself into your bathroom, I have to admit that thought scares me a bit, so OPEN UP!" Still no response.

Draco took out his wand and was about to open the door, when Hermione decided to open it. He saw that she had been crying, and he said, "Gee, Granger, I thought you might laugh at my little note, but I didn't think it would make you cry."

"I didn't even read the note, Malfoy," she told him.

"May I ask why?" he wondered.

"Because, I figured it was just a bill for your hurt hand, or something. On the other hand, maybe it was a note saying you had changed your mind. Whatever, Malfoy, this was a mistake. You and I, we're a mistake. I can't do this. I don't think I will ever feel like I'm good enough for you, and quite frankly, the whole concept makes my head hurt." She tried to close her door on him, but he held it open.

"Hermione read the note please. Especially now, after what you've just said," he told her. She went to the bedroom to retrieve the note she had dropped on the floor. He followed her. She sat on the bed and started to read. The note read:

* * *

_Dear Granger, I hope you like the dress. I remembered that you looked very pretty in this colour back in school. Bet you didn't think I'd remember, did you? I think I will say this in a note, before I see you in person, because frankly, sometimes my dear, you scare me to death. Therefore, here goes: I have wanted to ask you out for the longest time. Probably since about 4th year at school, but seriously, since at least the time I started with the Order. The thing is - I never really felt good enough for you. You're so smart, pretty, and well, just so good. I'm also smart and pretty, but not so good, you know? Anyway, I think that if we both relax tonight, and try to be on our best behaviour, we will have a very nice time. Now open the door again, because I am getting very anxious out here. Yours, (Maybe?) Malfoy_

* * *

He sat down next to her on the bed and asked, "Why didn't you read the note? What did you really think it would say? Did you think I was such a bastard that I would ask you out and then not show up? Is that what you really and truly think of me, Granger?"

She looked at him and when she spoke, she took one of his hands in both of hers and said, "No, Malfoy, to be honest with you, I don't really think you're like that. I just let my own insecurities almost ruin this evening for us, that's all. It's been so long since I've felt good about myself, that it's hard to feel good about other people, too."

"I sat on the couch most of the day even debating on whether or not to keep the date. Then, I got the dress and it was, well is, so pretty, and I got rather excited. I don't know, the thing is Malfoy, if you really want to go out with me, you get the real me, warts and all. I'm bossy, headstrong, independent, stubborn, and quite a know-it-all. I'm also incredibly insecure. Can you handle that, Malfoy?" She turned to look at him and he had a small frown on his face. 'Well, I guess he can't handle it,' she thought.

He stood up, (to leave she assumed) and grabbed her hands to pull her up as well. "Listen, Granger, I think I already know all those things about you, and believe me when I say that I still want to take you out. If you can accept me, warts and all, and I say that figuratively, since no Malfoy has ever had warts, then I can accept you, okay?" He brought her hands up to his chest and smiled sweetly to her.

"In for a penny, in for a pound, aye, Malfoy?" she said with a laugh.

"Okay, don't start speaking Muggle, because I won't understand a damn thing you're saying." He laughed back. Then he asked, "Shall we go, Hermione?"

"Yes, we shall," was her reply.

They turned to leave her apartment, but right before they walked through the threshold, he turned to her and said, "Listen, this night is already not off to the best of starts, so just so we can relax and have a good time this evening, could we take care of one small, little detail now, before the date even starts?"

"Sure, Malfoy, whatever you want." She smiled. What happened next was not at all what Hermione expected to happen. He took both hands and placed one on each side of her face. He rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs. He smiled sweetly and then he leaned his face close to hers. She was so nervous she thought she might hyperventilate. 'He's going to kiss me', she thought.

"Granger, I'm going to kiss you," he said, as if reading her mind. He turned his head slightly, and pressed his lips ever so gently on hers. It lasted no more than two seconds, but it felt like an eternity. She had closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she saw that he was looking down at her, still holding her face in his hands, and with a smile on his face. She smiled back up at him.

"Well, that was nice," he stated. "Now we don't have to have that over our heads all night; you know the old 'will we kiss goodnight or not thing'. It's over and done."

He was still holding her face and her breathing was becoming more ragged by the minute. She reached up and took his hands from her face, but kept them in her grasp, and told him, "Who knows, Malfoy, if it's an exceptionally good date, we might be able to have a repeat performance of that little kiss tonight."

"What a little tart you've become, Granger!" He laughed. "I just might have to marry you to make you an honest woman."

"At least I'm not a PRAT, Malfoy," she answered back. At that he laughed, took her arm, and they apparated away.

**Saturday Evening; the Date****  
**  
When they arrived at their destination, Hermione left a little queasy. She never liked side-along apparition. She took a few moments to catch her breath, and then inquired, "Where are we?"

"We're on the roof of my apartment building," replied Draco, in a rather obvious tone.

"The roof?" Hermione asked in shock. "What do you mean the roof?"

"Um, well, how do I explain? Oh yeah," began Malfoy, "a roof is the top part of a building, and it keeps the rain out. Seriously, Granger, we're having dinner up here. I told you it would not be any place fancy, remember?" Hermione started to frown, so he added, "Would you rather go to a restaurant? We can go anywhere you want."

She looked around and saw that there was already a beautiful table set, with a bottle of wine chilling next to it. There was also a wooden swing with fairy lights all around. "No, this is nice, and you apparently went to a lot of trouble, Malfoy, but the thing is, well, how do I put this so you won't make fun of me? The thing is, I'm afraid of heights!" she said rather quickly.

"What?" He was now laughing. "You are joking, right?"

"No, I am afraid of heights. Heights; afraid; me." She motioned to the roof and then to herself.

"But, we aren't even up that high!" he told her.

"How high is not that high?" she inquired of him.

"Well, my flat is the penthouse, and that's on the top floor, and my penthouse is on the 22nd floor; so I guess if my math is correct, we're on the 23rd floor," he told her plainly.

"WHAT?" she yelled. "Twenty-three floors up! Oh MY GOODNESS! I'm going to throw up! I cannot breath. Help me. I have to go away from here." She started to walk toward the middle of the roof, holding out her arms in front of her. He could tell she was truly afraid.

Draco said to her, "Come to the railing with me. You'll see that we're not that high up. I mean, I used to fly my broom up higher than this. In addition, the Quidditch stands are higher than this and I know you used to go to the games in school. Give me your hand and come to the railing." He motioned for her to come join him.

"NO!" she yelled. "I don't want to come to the railing! I can't do this, Malfoy. I'm really going to be sick. Maybe we should go to a restaurant or something." As she was speaking to him, she was gripping one of the chairs that were at the table, and she was holding on so tight that her knuckles were turning white.

Draco walked over to her. He held out his hand. He said, "Hermione, don't you trust me?"

"OF COURSE I DON"T TRUST YOU!" she bellowed.

"You don't trust me?" he asked, truly hurt.

"No, I'm sorry, but I really don't think I do," she responded.

"Okay, maybe that is justified, but seriously, just come with me to the railing. Take one look down. If you're still afraid after that, I'll take you anywhere you want to go." He walked closer to her and, his hand still offered for her to take. He finally approached her, and when it was obvious that she was not going to take his hand, he reached to the back of the chair she was clutching, and tried to pry her fingers loose, but to no avail. He got a very determined look on his face, and he started to drag her, chair and all, over toward the railing.

By this point, Hermione was actually screaming things like, "NO!" and, "Please, no," and, "I can't!" and, "No, Malfoy!"

"You're stronger than you look," he muttered under his breath. He finally decided to just pick her up, chair and all, and make her face her fears. He stopped dragging her, and went to stand behind her, and put both arms around her waist and picked her up. She was so shocked that she let go of the chair, and tried to pry his arms off her waist. Without the chair, she was much easier to move, even if she was now kicking him in his shins.

She continued to plead with him, "Please, Malfoy; please don't make me do this." She started whimpering, and then actually started crying. When they were less than one-step from the railing he let her down, and she turned and buried her face in his chest, still crying.

He put both his arms around her and started stroking her hair. He started whispering to her, "It's alright, Hermione. It is okay. I'll not let you fall. Please, we're at the railing now. Just take one small look."

She looked up at him and said, "I think I hate you."

"Yes, yes, everyone hates 'big bad' Malfoy. I seriously doubt I would know what to do if they didn't. Now, please take one look, so we can get to our dinner."

She buried her face deeper in his chest and said, "Please don't make me. I know it's silly, and I know it's irrational, but you know what? I would never make you do something you really didn't want to do. Please, just take me home, Malfoy. Take me home."

"No, I won't take you home," he stated very matter of fact. "Take a look this instant. Then we can have a nice dinner. I'll hold on to you the entire time. I promise not to let go. You need to get over this fear, Hermione."

"You know, your chances of ensuring a goodnight kiss becomes slimmer and slimmer each moment you make me stand next to this railing," she said in all seriousness, while looking up into his grey eyes.

"Well, Granger, some things are more important than a goodnights kiss. Not many things mind you, but some things. Now, we're already at the railing. Just turn around and look. I'll hold onto you the entire time, please." When he was done with his little speech, she opened her previously closed eyes, and turned in his arms. She might as well get on with it. He was not going to give up, she could tell.

Shutting her eyes again, feeling his breath on the back of her neck, and his arms around her waist she said, "You aren't doing this just so you can hold on to me, are you, Malfoy?"

"You discovered my evil plan," he said as he laughed.

"If I take a look, you have to promise me you'll take me somewhere else, okay?"

"If you take a look and you still want to leave, then yes, I promise you I will take you somewhere else."

"Don't let go," she said sternly

"Never," he answered back, quite serious…he didn't think he would ever let her go. She opened her eyes, and looked back at him first. He winked at her and kissed her cheek. She turned her head back around, took her hands off his (which were still tightly around her waist) and put her hands on the railing.

She took a deep breath, thought to herself, 'I cannot believe I am about to do this', and with her heart beating faster than she ever remembered it beating before, she started to lean toward the railing.

"Just a bit more, Granger," he encouraged.

She took a quick peek, let out a yelp, and turned back around in his arms. Her arms went tightly around his waist. "Come on, Granger. That wasn't even a proper look," he chastised.

"You're going back on your word," she whimpered.

"No, I'm not. It's just you must take a proper look to hold up your end of the bargain," he scolded.

"I really do hate you," she said, again looking up to his grey eyes.

"Yes, I really do know that," he smirked.

"FINE!" and with that, she pushed herself away from his body, grasped the railing, and really looked around. She had to admit, it was a beautiful view of London. She could even see the sun setting in the distance. Then, something occurred to her. She looked at the building across the street from them. She started counting the floors of that building. One, two, three, she stopped at twelve. It was twelve stories high, and it was higher than the building where they were. WHAT?

"Malfoy, how can this building be twenty-two floors high, when the building across the street is taller at twelve stories high?" she asked him, as she whipped around to face him.

"Oh. Do Muggle-borns learn numbers in school these days? I didn't know you counted that high. Well, you did say you didn't trust me. Besides, I just thought if you were going to be all scared of heights, better make it good for you, you know. Now, wouldn't you have really felt stupid acting like that if I told you this building only had ten floors? I was really thinking of you the entire time," he responded with a small grin.

"YOU!" she hit his chest, "ARE," another hit, "A," hit, "FIRST," hit, "CLASS," a really hard hit, "PRAT!" she yelled, and hit him once more for good measure.

"OUCH! That really hurt," he whined while putting his hands up on his chest. "See if I ever try to help you conquer a fear again! " He waited a few moments, while she continued to glare at him, and decided to take her hand. "Do you really hate me, Hermione?"

"More than ever!" she answered.

"Splendid!" he laughed, 'I wouldn't want it any other way. I wouldn't want you to fall in love with me or anything."

"No worries there, Malfoy," she retorted back. She moved over to the table and sat down. He picked up the chair she dropped earlier, and sat down facing her, and he studied her for a moment. She was looking over to the side and she had a frown on her face. She started biting her bottom lip and playing with her hair. He knew those signs. He had caused her actual distress. It was not just a game to her, as it was to him. She started to stare down at the table, and he knew he must do something to remedy the situation quickly. He had made an error and he must correct it. The only way to salvage their evening was to apologize, so that was what he did.

"Hermione, look at me," he started. She looked at him across the table, and he reached over and grabbed one of her hands. He started to stroke the top of her hand with his thumb as he continued to speak. "I'm so sorry. I will never, ever, and I mean this, never again, make you do something that you don't want to do. I promise. Don't be angry. Let's have some wine, and then the house elves can bring up our dinner, alright?"

She nodded in consent, so he poured her some wine, and then he poured some for himself. He picked up his glass, as if to make a toast to her, and said, "To Hermione Granger, the bravest woman I know." He took a drink, and added, "Well, drink up, Granger."

She eyed him wearily, picked up her glass, and toasted to him as well. "To Draco Malfoy, the biggest prat I know." Then she took a swig.

"Why, Hermione, I do believe that is the nicest toast I have ever received. It warms the cockles of my soul. You're so eloquent," he stated and then took another drink.

"Shut up," she said with a smile.

It looked like Draco Malfoy saved the day again.

**Later Saturday Evening – Dinner and a Game** -

After a few more glasses of wine, the house elves brought up their dinners.  
"I remember you had some campaign in school concerning house elves, didn't you, Granger?" Draco asked as he started to eat.

"Well, house elf welfare is very important, Malfoy," she answered.

"Helpful little buggers, though, don't you agree?" He laughed as he took another bite.

"Quite," she laughed back.

They had a lovely dinner, absolutely delightful. They talked about their school days and the Ministry, and about people they knew. They compared the places they had visited. They even talked about themselves. By the end of dinner, Draco decided that Hermione was very easy to talk to after all. They didn't argue once.

By dessert, which was the best chocolate crème brulee Hermione had ever tasted, Draco and Hermione had both come to the same conclusion: this was the best date either had ever had. Draco had soon finished his dessert, and had taken his spoon to take a bite of Hermione's, when she hit the back of his hand with her spoon and said, "Prat!"

"You know, I really am getting tired of being hit by you, slapped by you, and now being called a prat by you," Draco said languidly.

Hermione laughed and said, "That sounded almost like a poem."

Draco stood up, and said, "A poem, by Draco Malfoy," he cleared his throat, "I once knew a girl named Hermione, who was incredible annoying and whiny. She called me a prat, and I called her fat, because she had a very large heiney."

Hermione laughed so hard she snorted. Draco sat down, laughed also, and said, "Nice snort, Granger. Very lady like, but seriously, stop calling me a prat. It's starting to give me a complex. It hurts a person's feelings to be called a name every other minute," he said quite sincerely.

"Oh, you mean like being called a Mudblood throughout seven years of school?" she asked.

"Who called you a Mudblood? Tell me his name and I'll rough the fellow up a bit for you," he said while taking another bite of her dessert.

"Stop eating my dessert! You, you….well, I can't call you a prat now, because you might cry or something," she said as she took a bite.

"You could always start calling me some loving term of endearment, something like 'precious love' perhaps?" he suggested with a smile and a wink.

"How about 'stupid wanker'. I think that describes you more than prat ever could," she told him.

After dessert, and another glass of wine, they fell into an uncomfortable silence. Draco thought it was bordering on awkwardness, when he started to speak, but then was silenced by Hermione saying, "I know, Malfoy, let's play a game!"

"A game? Oh, yes, Granger, because we are ten years old," he drawled.

"No really, it will be fun," she implored.

"Fine, is this a physical game, or shall I have a seat?" he asked.

"No, we can sit," she answered.

He picked up his wine and walked over to the swing. He motioned for her to join him by patting the seat next to him. She picked up her glass, but instead of joining him on the swing, she pulled her chair over to face him. "Well, you're no fun, Granger," he said. "Now, what is this game we are going to play called?"

"It's called Two Truths and a Lie," she began. "What you do is tell the other person three statements, in random order, two being truths and one being a lie, and the other person has to guess which the lie is and which are the truths. A correct guess earns you a point, and an incorrect guess earns the other person a point. First person to five points wins."

"What do we win?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"The other person's undying praise and adoration, of course," she said. "I'll start; in school I had crushes on Ron Weasley, Vincent Crabbe, and Professor Lockhart." She laughed.

"Yuck, Granger," he said distastefully, "I know the obvious one, Weasel, so that's a truth. And I believe I remember you having a thing for Lockhart, so I know that is a truth. So, Thank God, that leaves Crabbe as the lie. At least, that had better be the lie." He took a drink of his wine.

"You get a point, Malfoy. Very good. To be truthful, I never really knew which of your goons was which. I just knew one was named Crabbe and one was named Goyle," she proclaimed.

He laughed at that one, and said, "I don't think it makes a difference anyway, Granger. Okay, my turn, I lost my virginity at fourteen; my mother's nickname for me was 'little prince'; and my middle name is Aldopho."

Hermione frowned and thought for a moment. She said, "Well the nickname one just makes sense, so I am sure that's true. The other two bothers me somewhat. Fourteen is very young to lose your virginity, but if that's false, then your middle name is Aldopho, which is odd in and of itself, but it would also make your initials spell out the word DAM, which I am sure your parents wouldn't have done to you. Still, I say the virginity one is the lie."

"WRONG!" he gloated, "Two points for me! You are such a loser, Granger. So, your turn…"

"Wait a minute," she stated, "You were seriously only 14 when you lost your virginity? "

"Yes, how old were you?" he asked.

"This isn't truth or dare, Malfoy. I refuse to answer that question. So, if Adolpho isn't your middle name, what is it?" she asked.

"This isn't truth or dare, Granger," he mocked her in a singsong voice; "I don't have to answer that."

"Fine!" she huffed. She went over to the table to refill her wine glass.

He joined her at the table and held up his glass. She filled it for him, and he leaned into her and whispered in her ear, "Abraxas. My grandfather's name is my middle name, which still spells out DAM." He walked back over to the swing, and this time she joined him. "Okay, to continue," Malfoy said, "your turn, Granger".

"I have kissed Ron, I have kissed Harry, and I have kissed Snape." Was her statement.

Draco blanched and said, "Well now I am really sick. Honestly, yuck. I think I might just really throw up. It's disgusting enough to know that you've kissed Ron, because, no matter how much you're ashamed, I know that one is true. And even the Potter one; while that one makes me question your intelligence, I hope that one is true, because the Snape one is just….so….gross! That's the lie. Tell me that's the lie, Granger. IS that the lie?"

"Which do you think is the lie, Malfoy?" she asked innocently.

"I think I answered that one with my obvious disgust. IT had better be Snape."

"Of course that's the lie," she smiled. "Three points for you."

Draco thought for a moment and said, "Does that mean you really did kiss Potter then?" He looked a little troubled by this turn of events.

"I didn't say it was a romantic kiss, Malfoy, I just said kiss," she answered. "Your turn."

Draco gave it some thought and then said, "Since you have no points yet, and I am beating you, I will take pity on you and give you an easy one." He took another drink, thought for a moment, and said, "You look beautiful tonight; I am getting a wee bit pissed; and I lied earlier about losing my virginity at fourteen."

Hermione was not sure she liked the direction this was going. She didn't think this was an easy one at all. She looked at him, and answered, "I believe you might think it's the truth that I am beautiful tonight, even though I'm not sure of the validity of that statement, so I will say that one is true."

"Hurry up, girl. We don't have all night," he added.

"Okay," she began, "this is difficult, Malfoy. Oh, okay, I don't really think you are drunk, so that is the lie, which means you are telling the truth about lying earlier, which is totally confusing me, and may indeed nullify one of your points."

"WRONG AGAIN!" he laughed and slapped his knee. "Four points for me and none for you."

"So what's the lie, then?" she asked in a small voice.

"Hum?" he asked.

"I said, what is the lie? The 'my looking beautiful' or the drunk part?" she asked pensively.

"You do look beautiful tonight; so truth. I am getting drunk; so truth, and I didn't lie earlier, so lie. You are a very insecure person, Granger," he told her. "Take your last turn so I can get my fifth point and win this thing."

"My favourite colour is not red, it's green. The sorting hat considered putting me in Ravenclaw, and my first kiss was Victor Krum." She finished her wine after her statement and added, "Which is the lie?"

"You just gave me an easy point, Miss Granger. Everyone knows that Krum was your first date, and your first boyfriend, so that is the truth. Of course, the sorting hat wanted to put you in Ravenclaw, what with your intelligence, so again, truth. Therefore, the lie is the favourite colour. It's red, not green," he gloated.

"WRONG!" she imitated him. "Point for me finally. The Ravenclaw thing, of course, the truth. The Victor Krum thing, sorry, the lie. My first kiss was in primary school, before Hogwarts, and was with a boy name Danny McCrery. Oh, and, my favourite colour really is green. In fact, it's 'Slytherin Green' and I even have on green underwear tonight," she said while leaning into him, and smiling at him sweetly.

"You're just trying to turn me on, to distract me from my win, aren't you, you little witch?" Draco said as he stood. He took her wine glass from her as he stood, and along with his, he put them on the table. He then walked back over to the swing and said, "This is my last chance to win, I better make it good." He bent down and pulled Hermione up by her hands. He took a step closer, and she felt so nervous that she thought her knees might buckle. As if sensing this, he put one arm around her waist and the other on the back of her neck. He bent his head, and kissed her neck, with one feathery soft kiss, directly below her left ear, on her pulse point. He then said, "I really love kissing you there." He then moved both his hands down her arms, put both her hands into his left hand, and rested them on his chest. He took his right hand and let is rest on her back, directly above her dress, on her bare skin. He then turned his head to the other side of her neck, and kissed her on the other pulse point, but this time, he let the kiss linger for a moment longer. "I really, really love kissing you there."

Hermione was beginning to wonder what in the world he was going to do next. Right on cue, he took both her arms and put them around his neck. He put one of his hands on the small of her back, and the other went to her hair. He took her hair down from the bun it was in, combed his fingers through her hair, and he leaned in as close as he could and said, "And I will really, really, really HATE kissing you right here, Granger," and with that said, he put his lips on hers and she actually felt like melting. She let out a little moan, which drove him crazy, and he deepened the kiss. He sucked on her bottom lip, and she opened her mouth. With her invitation, he became more forceful, and aggressive, while still being gentle and sweet.

He started to kiss her cheeks, her neck, and even her forehead. He looked directly in her eyes and invited himself back to her mouth. She felt shockwaves go through her entire body, starting at her toes and ending at the top of her head. He bit her bottom lip and then kissed her again so hard that she was almost completely unhinged.

When he finally ended the kiss, he pulled away from her and said in deep voice, "So tell me, Hermione, which was the lie?"

**Later Saturday Night -**

He was still holding her, which was good, because she no longer knew how to stand.  
She looked up at him and then turned her head and hid her face in his neck. He lifted her face back up and looked at her with questioning eyes. Did he do something wrong? Did he move too fast? He hoped he had not ruined everything. He was about to ask her if she was all right, when she said, "I don't want to play anymore, Draco. Please, no more games."

"This isn't a game, Hermione, not to me. This is real." He tried to assure her.

She hid her face back into the crook of his neck, and hugged him close. He put his chin on the top of her head. "I think this is an easy point for you, Granger. Tell me which the lie is?"

She looked back up at him, put her hand on his cheek, touched his lips with her fingertips, and then drew her hand back down. She said, "The first two were the truths and that last one was the lie."

"Do tell, Granger. How can you tell that for certain?" he asked with a sly smile.

He bent to kiss her on her forehead. She shut her eyes again before she answered, speaking directly into his chest, "I can just tell."

He laughed and did something completely unexpected. He picked her up and swung her around. He put her back down and said, "I am so proud of you. Another point!" He took her by her hand and sat her back down on the swing, "You get another turn. Give me a fair shot to win this time woman."

"Here's the last question, Draco," she began, "You are a very good kisser, I had a wonderful time tonight, and I definitely want to do this again sometime. Which is the lie?"

He actually looked confused for a moment before he said, "Well I rather hope all three of those are truths." He thought a moment longer. "Are you playing games with me, Hermione?" he asked.

"I thought that was obvious when I said 'let's play a game' earlier," she said laughing.

"Fine. Then, lie, truth, truth," he rattled off.

"Please explain your reasoning for your guesses, Mr. Malfoy," she teased.

"Lie, because I don't think you think I am a very good kisser. I think you think I am the best kisser you have ever had. Truth that you had a wonderful time tonight, because I know I did, and truth to wanting to do this again sometimes, because that is a given, when the company you keep is me," he ended smugly.

He sat there, looked at her, and added, "Do I get my fifth point. Am I the winner?" She simply smiled and then nodded her head. He smiled back at her and said, "Are you sure my winnings are just your undying praise and adoration?"

"Sorry, those were the terms of the game."

"Give me your undying praise and adoration then, Granger. I am the ultimate champ, and I want my winnings," he smirked.

"Alright you idiot, you are the ultimate champ. You are better than I am. I adore you. Blah, Blah, Blah," she responded.

"And I am a bloody great kisser. Say it, Granger," he said with a smile.

"You are a bloody great kisser and, I hope that you…well, never mind," she said.

He pulled her into a hug and asked, "Tell me what else you were going to say."

"Not today, Malfoy. I'll tell you sometime, just not today," she confessed.

"When will you tell me?" he smiled, as he inquired.

"What, you want an exact date and time?" she wondered.

"Yes, tell me when you are going to tell me what else you were going to tell me," he rambled. Then he added, "I really do think I am a wee bit drunk".

"Fine, next Friday night, okay?" she responded.

"I will remember that and hold you to that promise, Granger. Next Friday I will ask you what you were going to say tonight and you will tell me, and by the way, you're not a bad kisser either," he replied with a wink.

"Gee, I can't handle the compliments. 'Not bad'. I know I can't compare to you, little prince, but am I really just 'not bad'?" she asked as she squirmed out of his arms.

"Okay, just say it one more time. I know you want to. Call me 'it', Granger. Come on. Once more, with feeling…"

"PRAT!" she proclaimed.

"There you go. You never disappoint me, do you woman?" He stood and took her hands to force her to stand again as well. "So what now, Hermione?"

"Don't be angry, but I feel like this night is ending up on just such a perfect note, with the incredible dinner, and the game, and the wonderful kiss, and my calling you a prat, that I feel we should maybe end the evening now. On a high note, you know. Before we get into another fight of something, also, I am rather tired," and indeed, she did yawn as she said this.

"I would have believed your tired excuse, you didn't have to fake a yawn," Draco joked. She gave him a dirty look and he tried to recover by saying, "Of course, that was a sincere yawn, you aren't that good of an actress. In addition, I agree about ending this on a high note. You can even call me another name before you leave, if you'd like." He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. "I will apparate with you to your flat."

"No, as you said, you are a little drunk, and it's not wise to apparate drunk, Malfoy. You don't want to lose any of your appendages, do you?" she asked.

"Well, I am rather attached to them. Get it. Attached? I must admit, I am funny," he stated.

"At least one of us thinks so," she joked back. "I'll see you Monday morning right at 8 am, okay?" she asked hesitantly.

"You can make it 8:03 if you want, and you never know, you might see me before that." He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. "That was the goodnight kiss you promised me; if I gave you a good date, remember?"

"I remember." She turned to leave, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

"I know you over think everything, Granger, but don't analyze this. Us. Just let it be what it is, okay?" he asked her, as he dropped her wrist to let her go.

She turned to leave, but then turned back to him and kissed his cheek and said, "Like I said earlier, in for a penny, in for a pound, right, Malfoy?"

"I told you not to talk Muggle to me," and he laughed. He turned his head toward hers and kissed her again. A sweet, chaste, good night kiss.

She smiled up at him and said, "Sweet dreams, Draco." And with that, she disappeared.

Standing alone on his rooftop, Draco said, "Don't worry, Granger, I'm sure I'll have very sweet dreams and you will be in every one of them". He then touched his lips and smiled. He went over to the rooftop railing and looked at the night sky. He thought of all the events of the last two days. He was convinced he was falling in love with Hermione Granger. What a thought. His father was probably turning over in his grave at that very moment. He again laughed right out loud.

He walked back over to the table and sat back down. He couldn't wait until Monday to see her. He would have to see her tomorrow, and possibly every day after that. He was probably going to have to marry the little witch. He could not possibly let her go now.

It would be hard to see her every day at the office and not be able to touch her, kiss her. He knew how fragile she was and so insecure. He would have to try always to be sincere and truthful to her. Nothing else would do. He knew in his heart that he could never hurt her again. He had hurt her when he was younger, but he was not that boy anymore.

He wanted her to trust him. He would have to gain that trust. Draco Malfoy was a smart man, and he knew that she might not feel the exact same thing for him that he felt for her. He was under no illusions, but he was sure, in time, she would fall in love with him as well. He walked to the door that led from the roof back to his flat, and he turned to the night sky and said, to no one at all, "I love her". He then went on to bed, anxious to start those "sweet dreams" she told him to have. Also knowing that the sooner he ended this evening, the sooner tomorrow would come and he could see her once more.

_End of Day Two_


	3. Day Three Sunday

**all characters belong to JKR**

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**Chapter 3: Day Three Sunday**

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**Day Three  
**  
**Late Sunday Morning -**

Draco woke that Sunday morning a little after 10:00 am. He didn't usually sleep that late. As soon as he woke up, his thoughts went immediately to Hermione. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He wondered if Hermione would like to join him for Sunday brunch. He got up and showered, and when he got out of the bathroom one of his house elves had his coffee and paper ready for him, and had laid out his clothes. He went a head and dressed, but left the coffee and paper. He was going to send Hermione a note and see if she wanted to meet today. He hoped that she was not getting sick of him, but then again, who would get sick of Draco Malfoy? Certainly not a pretty, little witch that lived _across town_.

_Across town_, Hermione had already been up and dressed for hours. Usually on Sundays she would lounge around in her pajamas most of the morning and sometimes until late afternoon, but this morning was different. Draco had casually mentioned last night that he might see her today and she wanted to be ready just in case he was true to his word. Maybe she should just go visit him; take some initiative. Maybe he would appreciate the effort she was putting into their relationship, if they _did in deed have a relationship_.

_Did they have a relationship_? He was wondering. Well, if they didn't yet, they would soon, and he wanted to impress her. Treat her better than any of her previous boyfriends. Treat her with love and respect, as she deserved. He went out to his balcony, and called over his owl, Zeus. He wondered if Hermione had an owl. If she didn't, perhaps he could buy her one. He put the note on the owl's leg and told him to deliver it to Hermione Granger, and to wait for a reply. He would have requested the pleasure of her company in person, or maybe put another note on her door, but he decided against that after the reception the last note of the door received. Yes, he learned his lesson..._no more notes on the door_.

_'Nope, no note on the door,_' she thought. Hermione decided to check to make sure. She thought that maybe he had left her another note out there. But no, no note. Oh well, it was only 10:45 am. He was probably still in bed. She started back in the door, when she thought she saw an owl approaching her. It was indeed an owl. He perched on her porch railing and offered his leg to her. She ran inside to get an owl treat (she kept some for Harry's owl), and she came back out and took off the note. It was from Malfoy. He requested to meet her at 11:00 am at some coffee shop called "Ivan's" in Diagon Alley. She ran in the house with the note, wrote her reply at the bottom of the same parchment, and re-attached it to the owl's leg. She then went back into the house to change. _She wanted to look pretty today_.

_He was sure she would look pretty today_. She always looked pretty. He was still on the balcony when he saw his owl return. She agreed to meet him. He only had five more minutes. He decided to go ahead and apparate to the coffee shop, even though knowing Granger, she would probably be late. Probably three minutes late, he thought to himself. He ran to his bathroom to check his reflection one last time, and then _looked in his mirror and smiled_.

_She looked in her mirror and smiled_. She thought she looked okay. Oh no, she thought, it was three minutes after 11:00. She had better leave for the coffee shop. She had no idea where "Ivan's" was, so she would just go directly to Diagon Alley and then ask for directions from someone when she arrived.

**Diagon Alley: **

Draco sat down at one of the tables outside. He had already checked inside, and she was not there yet. It was now a few minutes after 11:00. Maybe she didn't know where the coffee shop was. He decided he would give her another five minutes, and then he would go look for her.

Hermione was so late. It was now ten minutes after 11:00. Malfoy would probably never let her live it down that she was late. She had asked three different people for directions to "Ivan's" until she finally found someone who knew where it was. She was running down the street toward her destination, when she saw two people she did not want to see, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Maybe if she ran by them fast they would not see her. She tested this theory, but only got about an arm's length from them when she felt a hand reach out for her and heard Harry ask, "Where are you going in such a hurry?"

"Oh, Harry, Ron, hi," she said out of breath.

"Out for a jog?" joked Ron.

"No, just late. I'm meeting someone, and I'm very late. I'll see you later, I guess," she challenged, and tried to run away again, but Harry still had her arm.

"Hold on a minute, Hermione. I want to hear about what happened Friday at work. Malfoy told us that O'Brien didn't tell you about your transfer, and that you were upset. We looked everywhere for you, and then finally Malfoy flooed us and told us that he found you at your parents' grave."

"Yeah, he did, but I really don't want to talk about the other night right now, because I really am late," she explained.

"Who are you meeting?' interjected Ron.

"Oh, you don't know them. I must go boys. I love you!" She started to run away again, but Harry went after her and grabbed her arm once more.

"Listen, Hermione, why are you acting so evasive? Whom are you meeting? It's not Malfoy is it?'" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Why would I meet Malfoy?" she tried to ask innocently.

"Well, Friday night at dinner Malfoy mentioned that he had just shown you your office and all, but since he didn't have a lot of time, he might see you this weekend to discuss your new job," Harry said wryly.

"Wait, you had dinner with Malfoy Friday night? Are you friends or something now?" Hermione asked with an air of arrogance.

"No, we aren't really friends, but we did have dinner," Harry answered.

"So, you can have dinner with Malfoy, but it would be wrong for me to meet him today?" she argued.

"Are you meeting him?" Harry asked.

"No, for goodness sakes. Listen, I have to go," and with that she ran away, back in the direction she just came. She could not very well run in the direction she was originally heading. Harry might figure out that she was lying. Why did she lie anyway? Why did she care if Ron and Harry knew she was seeing Malfoy?

Harry and Ron continued walking in the direction they were originally going, when they started to walk past Draco Malfoy sitting at an outside table at a coffee shop. When they went back to approached him, Harry could see he was peeved, and was beginning to think that his being there probably signified that he WAS meeting Hermione. Harry approached Malfoy and said, "Hello, Malfoy, fancy meeting you here. Are you by yourself or are you with someone?"

"I wasn't aware you were my keeper now, Potter," Draco responded sternly.

"It's just the day to run into people I guess," Harry continued, "First we run into Hermione and now you."

"Oh and where did you see Miss Granger?" Draco asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"She was running down this street actually, said she was late meeting someone, but then she ran off in the other direction," Harry interjected, trying to test his theory, and interested in how Draco would respond.

"Oh, well, that's nice. Listen, Potter, I would love to sit here all day and talk to you and the Weasel, but I must be going." With that, Draco stood to leave. He left a very perplexed Ron Weasley, and a very smug Harry Potter behind.

Draco sprinted in the direction they had just come. He needed to catch up with Hermione. Apparently, she was on her way to meet him when she ran into the 'Witless Wonder', and his faithful sidekick. She must have been too ashamed to tell them whom she was meeting, he thought. Of course, he didn't tell them who he was meeting either, but he had a funny feeling that Potter already knew.

He was just rounding the corner when he literally ran right into Hermione Granger. She fell down and said, "Watch where you're going," before she even knew it was him. He reached down to help her up, and she finally realized it was he. "Malfoy, I'm so sorry I'm late. I ran into Harry and Ron, and I got detained," she said bashfully.

"I ran into them as well, at the coffee shop," he told her. "I was just leaving, having decided that you were standing me up, when I saw them and they told me they had run into you. Tell me, Granger, why didn't you tell them you were meeting me?"

"Why didn't you tell me you had dinner with Harry Friday night?" she asked back.

"Fair enough, you keep your secrets, and I will keep mine," he answered.

Just then, Hermione saw Harry and Ron turn back around the corner. 'What in the world are they up to?' she thought. Draco noticed Hermione looking at someone, and turned his head in time to see the dimwits coming back their way. "Hold on to my arm, and I'll apparate us out of here," he commanded of her.

"Just tell me where we're going, and I'll apparate myself," she countered.

"Honestly woman!" he yelled and grabbed her hand and apparated them away.

**Sunday Brunch-**

"Where are we?" she asked, looking around.

"Back at the coffee shop," was his plaintive answer.

"Malfoy!" she said, suddenly coming to a realization, "We are in a bathroom!"

"Well, yes, that's pretty obvious," he remarked.

"Is this a men's room?" she asked with a small gasp.

"I don't think I would apparate in the woman's room, so yes, this is a men's room," he told her.

"Why are we in the men's room?" she inquired, still shocked at the idea.

"I guess I had to go to the bathroom, Granger, and when I was thinking about my destination, my bladder overruled my head and we ended up here." He entered one of the two stalls and started to shut the door.

"Draco!" she said earnestly, "you cannot go to the bathroom with me in here!"

"Why not?" he asked, because he really did wonder. "You won't see anything."

"Maybe not, but I'll hear things!" she interjected, and he started to once again shut the stall door, when she again stopped him.

"Are you telling me that all these years you've been best friends with a couple of chaps, and they've never went to the bathroom in front of you?" he asked as he chuckled.

"Certainly not!" she stated.

"Well, too bad, because I'm going to do it," he told her.

"Oh, my gosh, Malfoy, I really mean it. Do not whip 'little Draco' out in here with me present," she said with embarrassment.

"First, I think you owe, what did you call him? Oh yeah, 'little Draco' an apology, because I don't think you know him well enough yet to be on first name basis with him, and also because he's not that little." With that, Draco finally went into the stall and shut the door. He then said through the door, "You do realize I would have been done by now, if you had not kept interrupting."

Hermione yelped in shock, went into the other stall, and tried to figure out what to do next.

When he was done, he exited the stall, and didn't see Granger anywhere. "Where are you, Granger?" he asked. Before she could answer, he heard the distinct sound of a toilet being flushed, and then saw Hermione leaving the other stall, while straightening up her skirt. As she walked over to the sink to wash her hands, he walked over to the other sink to wash his as well, and looked at her reflection in the mirror and said one word: "Hypocrite!"

"Well, I had to go also," was all she said.

"This is the men's room, Granger," he said appalled.

"Grow up, Malfoy," she spat back.

"I must say, I am shocked and appalled," he smirked. They walked out of the bathroom, and a few people pointed and stared and them, and some even snickered.

"Oh, I'm so embarrassed!" she quietly exclaimed to him.

"You should be," he said and laughed. Then he added in her ear, "You do realize most of these people assume we were having sex in there, don't you?"

"What?" She turned to him in shock.

He just laughed some more and said, "Yep, they assume that you and 'little Draco' are more than just friends, Granger." Then he turned to the coffee shop patrons and said, "Nothing to see here folks. I assure you, we were only using the facilities. There was certainly no sex going on in there." He looked at Hermione, and said, only to her, "There, I solved the problem."

She looked up at him, looked at some of the other patrons leering at them, and then embarrassed, she ran out of the coffee shop. "Wait up, Granger," he yelled as he ran after her, "aren't we having brunch?" He was serious.

"Not in there," she pointed, "you stupid prat. You embarrassed me!"

He rolled his eyes at her and said, "Wait right here. I mean it. No running away. I'll be right back." He pointed at the ground as he spoke. In a matter of minutes, he was back with two coffees and some scones. "Let's cross the street here, and eat our brunch on that bench over there," he said as he started to run across the street. She had no choice but to follow.

They sat down, and he handed her the bag with the scones, and a coffee. As they started eating, Draco said, "Close call back there with Potter and Weasel, huh?"

"I guess so," she said quietly.

He looked over at Hermione and she was staring directly in front of her. "What's wrong, Granger? Are you angry that I embarrassed you back there? I apologize, all right?" He nudged her as he spoke. When she didn't respond, he said again, "If that's not it, then tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing really," she answered primly, "It's just that, I don't want you to think that I was ashamed to be seen with you. I mean, I didn't Ron and Harry I was meeting you, and while I'm not 100 percent sure why I didn't, I am 100 percent sure it's not because I'm ashamed to be seen with you."

As Draco took another bite of his scone, he said, "Well, it's not like I told them I was meeting you either. It's okay. Don't feel guilty. I know you're not ashamed. I mean, you should feel incredibly honoured that I'm seeing you."

She looked at him through squinted eyes for a moment and than scoffed, "Oh yes, I should rejoice, I am dating the world's biggest prat." He looked back at her and raised his eyebrows in an affirmative response, as if agreeing with her.

They finished their coffee, and Draco stood up. He reached down for Hermione's hand and said, "What else do you want to do? I am totally at your service today."

She stood as well and said, "Don't make fun, but can we go to Flourish and Blotts? They were ordering a book for me and I want to see if it's arrived yet."

"I can't believe it!" he gasped sarcastically. "Granger wants to go to a bookstore. Never would have guessed that one. Let's see, after that I suppose you will want to go to a 'know-it-all' convention, and then maybe go have lunch in a Muggle fast food joint".

"Fast food joint?" she laughed.

"Come, Granger; take me to your people. Let's see what's so great about a bookstore." He grabbed her hand and they walked down the street toward the bookstore.

Once inside the store, Hermione went up to the counter to ask about her book, and Draco started looking through some of the shelves. He found a book called, "Learning to Communicate with Muggles, and How to Understand the Hidden Meaning Behind their Words." He picked it up, and took it over to Hermione, and showed her the book and said, "Maybe I should get this; it might help me understand you a little better."

"To understand me better, Malfoy," she replied flatly, "you would have to grow some brain cells, and I don't see that happening any time soon." The salesclerk returned with the book that Hermione ordered, and as she reached into her purse to get the money to pay for it, Malfoy stopped her.

"Let me, Granger," he said as he reached for his own money.

"No, Draco, it's a very expensive book, and I can't let you pay for it," she responded.

"Of course," he snapped, "Because everyone knows that I can't afford it, right?"

"I know you can afford it, I just can't let you buy it for me," she reprimanded.

"I am paying for it and that's that," he told her. He paid for the book and asked for it to be delivered to Hermione's house later. He then looked down at her, for she was truly staring daggers up at him and he told her, "Fine, if it makes you feel any better, you can repay me with sex, okay?" She looked outraged at what he said, and that he said it in front of the salesclerk, so she ran out of the bookstore without looking back.

He ran after her and caught her arm. "Why do you keep running away from me, and why oh why, little Miss Granger, can you not take a joke, when the joke is about sex?"

"You keep embarrassing me in front of people!" she scoffed. "And I can take jokes about sex, just not when they are directed at me."

"Why, have you never had sex?" he joked.

"What? What does that have to do with anything? Oh, just shut up already." She hit him hard on his arm. She then said, "Let's just go," and grabbed his arm and started pulling him down the street.

"Where are we going?" he asked. "Are you taking me somewhere to show me that you do indeed know how to have sex?"

"No, stupid, we're going to go to the park and people watch. It is something I used to love to do with my dad when I was young. We would make up stories about the people passing by, and I thought it was something you and I could do. But, if you would rather have sex, then I'm sure you could find someone to have sex with down in Knockturn Alley perhaps," she said, as she continued to lead him to the park.

"If those are my only two choices, Granger, then I will have to think it over and get back with you," he said with a smile on his face. She ignored him and continued to the park, where she sat down on top of a picnic table, with her back to him. He joined her in no time and said, "I think I'll choose people watching with you over sex with a stranger." He joined her on top of the picnic table.

**People watching in the park:**

Soon a man and woman walked by, and they were arguing, and Hermione said, "That's what we look like to other people when we argue in public." Then she said, "I imagine that they are arguing because she wants to get married, and he's just not ready."

Draco said, "Well, I imagine that they're arguing because he wants to have sex in a men's room, and she wants to go to a bloody bookstore instead."

"Now you get the hang of the game," she laughed. "Okay, look at that those two young boys and that young girl; what's their story, Malfoy?"

"The boys are annoyed because one of their best friend is a girl and she won't let them piss in front of her, because she's too prim and proper," he began, "Oh, and also, the girl is probably annoyed because the boys make her do all their homework for them."

"I didn't do all of Harry and Ron's homework," she defined.

"I didn't say they were you and the golden boys either, did I?" He laughed back at her. "Okay, my turn to pick. What's the story with those two?" he asked as he pointed to an elderly couple.

"They are probably sitting on that bench discussing their upcoming 50th wedding Anniversary, and wondering if all their children and grandchildren are going to make it to the celebration. That could be you in 50 years, you know, Malfoy?" she told him.

"I don't think so, Granger. First, In 50 years I will still be incredibly sexy and gorgeous, and second, I will not have some 70-year-old woman on my arm. No missy, I intend to have some lovely young 20-year-old blond on my arm, who only loves me for my money," he retorted.

"Oh, is that right, Malfoy?" she mocked.

"That's right, Granger. Oh, over there is you in ten years. That woman with all the little children hanging off of her skirts," he pointed.

"Only if I marry a Weasley," she told him. That statement made him laugh aloud.

After his laughter subsided, he asked in all seriousness, "Do you want kids, Hermione?"

"Sure, someday I want kids, and I know I want more than one. I always wished I had a brother or sister. Harry and I used to discuss that all the time. I think sometimes that's why we're as close as siblings, because we were both only children," she responded to him.

"I know I loved being an only child," he stated, "I didn't have to share my parent's attention or love with anyone, and when they died I got all their money." She looked at him in shock, but saw that he was smiling, so she didn't press the matter.

"See that gentleman over there, Malfoy?" she started as she peered at a lonely looking gentleman walking down a path, "He probably has no parents, no siblings, isn't married, has no children, and a lot of money, and you know what? He's probably lonely as hell."

He turned to her, and with quite a bit of anger asked, "Are you saying that man is me someday, Granger?"

"Perhaps it is, Malfoy," she told him.

"Fine!" he snapped back, "well, see that old spinster over there. I imagine that she's a 40 year old virgin that only has her cats and her books for company, and that she wouldn't know what it felt like to be loved if love came up and smacked her on her old, wrinkled, cat lover face."

"That's not nice," she retorted.

"I'm not saying she's you, Granger, but if you see the parallels between her and yourself, then that is that," he said as he stood up and started to walk away. He knew that was mean, but she started it. Who was she to say that he was going to be old and lonely some day? Hell, he was lonely _now_, but that was none of her damn business. He took one last look around at the table he just vacated, and saw that she was still sitting there, but now had her back turned the other direction.

He turned back around to apologize to her, but she apparated away before he could. He DID mean to be mean, but the difference with all the other times he was mean to her in their lifetime was that this time, he felt bad about it. His comments were below the belt. He went back to her flat, sat outside her door, and hoped that she would appear. He tried to apparate into her house, but she apparently had wards up and he couldn't enter.

They were having a perfectly nice day together and he had to ruin everything. He thought after the park they could go to the broom races, and then have an early dinner at that nice Italian restaurant he liked, but no, his big mouth had to spoil the day. He sat back against her front door and decided if he had to wait all day, he would.

Hermione was hurt. She was just as unkind to him, with the comment about 'alone with your money', but still, he didn't have to be so mean, did he? She decided to go to Harry's house. Malfoy could just go drop off the face of the earth for all she cared. And to think, she thought she fancied him.

She spent most of the afternoon at Harry's house. Ginny wasn't home, which was just as well. Hermione confided in Harry about everything. About what happened at the graveyard, about their wonderful date on Saturday, and about how Malfoy was a jerk to her today. Harry actually listened, and didn't pass judgment. He even told her to lighten up and give Malfoy a chance.

**Sunday Afternoon:**

Around 4pm, she decided to go home. As she was walking up the outside stairs that led to her front door, she saw him. He was napping, or so it appeared, and was leaning against her doorframe. When he saw her, he stood up and before she could say anything, he drew her into a hug and said, "I apologize, again. I can be so mean sometimes. Please forgive me."

She leaned away from his hug, put her hands on his chest, as if to push him away, or so he thought, but then she said, "You shouldn't apologize. I should. I'm sorry." Then she put her arms around his neck, and kissed him sweetly on the lips. She then said, "I think you got a little too close to the truth, Malfoy, about the 'lonely with cats' thing, and sometimes the truth hurts, you know?"

"Listen, Hermione," he began, "you're the one who hit the nail on the head. I am lonely, and I don't really have any friends or family, and sometimes the only thing I have to keep me company is my money."

She laughed at that and hugged him again. Then she looked up at him and asked, "Why aren't you married yet?'

"Is this a proposal, Granger?" he asked her.

"Seriously, I thought all purebloods were betrothed from childhood. So what happened, why aren't you married with a lot of little pureblood children by now?"  
Hermione challenged.

"I thought I would be married by now, too, to tell you the truth. I mean, it was certainly expected by my parents. I was supposed to marry a pureblood and make sure the pureblood Malfoy name never died out," he truthfully told her.

"So, you probably only see yourself with a pureblood someday?" she asked timidly.

"Granger, it's just that the Malfoy name goes back a thousand years, and it's still one of the only true pureblood families of its kind, so yeah, I guess in a way I sometimes think, who am I to mess that all up? So, I suppose I always thought that I would marry a pureblood." He let her go when he said that and turned to lean on her balustrade.

"Well, I hope you find the happiness you seek then, Malfoy, but if it's a pureblood you're after, then we're just wasting our time here, because I can't make my Mudblood pure anymore than you can make your pureblood mud." She turned to walk into her flat. Before she walked in the door, he spoke.

"I said I always supposed I would marry a pureblood. I did not say that was what was going to happen. I would much rather marry for love, now that I know that's possible, than to marry for blood." He turned back around, and looked at Hermione. She took his hand and led him inside.

Hermione led Draco to her living room. She just stood in the middle of the room, holding his hand. He smiled at her and put his free hand up to her face. He stroked her cheek, and put his forehead against hers. He put both arms around her waist, and kissed her sweetly, but passionately. She felt like she never wanted the kiss to end. When they finally parted, he asked her, "Tell me, Granger, whom do you fancy? Whom do you love?" She smiled at him, and pressed her palm against his cheek. He took her palm in his right hand, and pressed it against his lips and kissed it gingerly. He asked again, "Whom do you fancy?"

"Maybe I don't fancy anyone, Malfoy," she said with a smile. "Maybe I will never be in love."

She pulled him over to a wingback chair near her fireplace. She pushed him down into the chair, and he feigned shock, and said, "I will not be manhandled by you missy," and pulled her onto his lap. "Please tell me whom you fancy, Hermione," he pleaded.

"You tell me whom you fancy," she said softly, as she snuggled her face into his neck, and kissed it softly.

"But, I believe I asked you first, Granger, and fair is fair," he said in a rough voice, and then he started kissing her all around her face.

"If you still want to know by next Friday, I'll tell you whom I fancy, when I tell you that other thing I was going to tell you, but not until next Friday; and only if you ask nicely," she said in a whisper. She then put both her hands on his face and kissed him seductively. She kissed him as if her life depended on it. It was a hard, full, and demanding kiss, and Hermione Jean Granger was initiating it.

He pulled back from the kiss after a few moments and asked, almost as if confused, "Why do I have to wait until Friday?"

"Oh, you finally heard what I said five minutes ago?" She laughed and got off his lap.

"I was a little pre-occupied, my bonny little witch." He winced when she got up.

"By what?" she asked coyly.

"I don't care what anyone says, you are a tart." He got up as he said that. He pulled Hermione into his arms once more and said, "On Friday I'm going to ask you three questions: one being, 'whom do you fancy' and the other one being, 'what were you going to say to me on my balcony, Granger?' and the third will be a surprise." He kissed her lips again, as gently as he could. "You will accommodate me and answer those questions, is that understood, Miss Granger?" he implored.

"Fine, Malfoy; on Friday, I'll answer any questions you ask, but I do need one promise from you," she stated.

"Tell me, my little Muggle-born, what it is that I must promise you?" he asked while looking deeply into her eyes.

"Well, I can't tell you what you must promise me until Friday night either, but you must promise me you will promise me," she said almost sternly.

"Promise," he told her. "Now, lets sit on the couch and snog some more," he joked.

"No, let's sit on the couch, and you can listen to the Quidditch game on the wireless, and I'll start to read my new book, which has just arrived by owl," she told him as she went to open her window to collect her book. She then sat next to him on the couch and opened her book to page one.

"You know, Granger, the probability of that whole '40 year old, virgin, cat lady thing' is becoming more and more of a reality the longer you refuse to come snog me and the longer you sit there reading that bloody book."

"Shut up you prat!" She waved at him, with her nose already deep in her book.

**Late Sunday Afternoon:**

The afternoon went by with Hermione reading and Draco listening to the game. After a while, he turned to look at her to ask her if she wanted some dinner, and he saw that she was asleep. He took the book from her hand, and laid it on the side table. He moved her so that she was reclining with her legs up on the couch. He decided to leave. She would probably rather make an early night of it anyway, since her first day of work was tomorrow. He bent down, and kissed her lightly on the cheek. He tucked her hair behind her ear, and said, to only himself, "I can already tell you whom I fancy, Granger. I fancy you. In fact, I rather think I love you. Can you handle that?" He smiled, stroked her hair, and looked down at the pretty witch again, and walked to her front door and left.

Hermione opened her eyes and said to herself, "Did he say that he loved me? Draco Malfoy loves me?" She stood from the couch, and went to her door, but he was already gone. She walked back in her apartment, and decided to take a long bath. It had been some day. She needed to relax a bit, and to contemplate what she had just heard. She was not supposed to hear his declaration. She was supposed to be asleep, but that didn't negate the fact that she did hear him. He loved her and on Friday, she was going to tell him that she loved him too.

_End of Day Three_


	4. Day Four Monday

**all characters belong to JKR**

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**Chapter 4: Day Four Monday**

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**Day Four**

**Early Monday Morning:**

Monday morning came early for Hermione. The truth was she really could not sleep well the night before. She showered, ate breakfast, fed her cat, and then stared at her closet for close to 15 minutes. Why hadn't she bought something new to wear? She finally decided on a dark brown skirt and a white button up fitted blouse. She put on sensible shoes, and pulled her hair back in a big clip. She knew it was only 7:15 am, and still too early to really go to work, but she didn't want to just sit in her empty little apartment for 45 minutes, so she decided to go on to the Ministry.

She went to her fireplace and flooed to the atrium of the Ministry. It was still quite early, and not very many people were there yet. Usually when she arrived to work, the atrium was full of wizards and witches. She dusted her self off and started toward one of the lifts. She pushed the button and she saw a hand of a wizard standing behind her push the same button she had just pushed. She turned around to see who the fool was and to her surprise, Draco was standing directly behind her.

He had his hands behind his back, and was looking up at the numbers going by at the top of the lift. He was acting as if he was completely unaware of her presence. He pushed the button again, and then said, "Damn lift is always so slow, I think I will take the stairs." With that, he started toward the stairs. She looked at him as if he had two heads or something, with an 'is he crazy' stare, when he looked at her and said, "Well, are you going to stand there all day and wait on the lift, or are you going to join me on the stairs?" He walked over to the stairwell, and opened the door and motioned for her to join him.

Hermione walked over to the stairs, and once inside the stairwell, turned to ask him if he was crazy, when all of the sudden he pushed her against the wall, and gave her a very 'good morning' kiss. She finally pushed him away and said, "You know, I think now that you're my boss this could be construed as sexual harassment."

"Tell you what, Granger, you refrain from calling me prat, git, twit, idiot, wanker, stupid arsehole, etc, etc, while we're in front of coworkers, and I'll promise to only sexually harass you in private, deal?" he asked as he was kissing her up and down her neck. He then took his tongue and licked her from her earlobe to her collarbone, and took a little nip.

He was driving her wild. She pushed him off her, and she said, "Deal!", and started to straighten her skirt and hair.

"You still look lovely, Granger. Very professional," he told her as he grabbed her hand and started to pull her down the stairs.

"What are you doing here so early?" she asked as she lagged a few steps behind him.

"Oh, I know you, Granger. Boy do I know you. I knew you would be here early. I thought I would meet you, and also, I have a 'first day' present to give you." He stopped between floors, in the middle of the stairs, and pulled a package from his jacket pocket. It was long and thin, and wrapped in gold paper with a green ribbon.  
She reached for it, but he said, "Nope, wait until we're at your office."

They walked down a few more stairs, and she waited until she was on a higher step then him, and now at his eye level, and she told him plainly, "Fine, make me wait. I don't care, but then you'll have to wait for your present was well."

"You're bluffing!" he barked, "You don't have a present for me."

"Are you calling me a liar, Malfoy?" she asked indifferently.

"Yes, you're a liar, Granger," he told her flatly.

"Fine, see if I care. Now you won't get your present at all." She continued down the stairs.

When they were on the last flight of stairs before their floor, he pulled on her arm and said, "Give me my present now, and I'll give you yours."

"You're such a big baby," she said, as she hit his arm lightly.

"I just still doubt the existence of my so called present, golden girl," he told her sweetly.

Hermione acted very offended, and said, "Close your eyes, Malfoy."

"Why, are you going to hex me, or maybe you're going to kiss me? While the first one would not be pleasant, the second one would be mildly amusing. However, neither of them is a present, Granger." He nonetheless closed his eyes.

Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out a small box, wrapped in silver paper, with a dark blue ribbon. She reached for his hand, and placed the box therein. He opened his eyes in surprise, and said, "I really didn't think you had anything for me."

"I know that, but I really did. Now, can I have mine?" she asked plaintively.

"No, you must still wait until we get to your office. However, I am going to go ahead and open mine," he responded, as he started to open the gift.

"You are poop-head," she laughed.

"A poop-head?" he asked her quizzically. "Are we five years old now, Hermione?"  
He went back to opening his gift from her and was shocked to see what was inside. It was a gold pocket watch, a Muggle watch, by the look of it, and very old and probably worth quite a bit of money. He turned it over and saw there was an inscription. It said "To Henry on our wedding day. I'll love you until the end of all time. Your loving wife, Jane". He looked back at Hermione and said, "What is this?"

"I thought it was obvious that it was a watch, Malfoy," she stated. "It belonged to my father. My mother gave it to him on their wedding day. It is not a magical watch or anything, but it does still give accurate time, and well, I just really wanted you to have it. It's my way of saying 'thank-you' for all you've done for me."

"Well, way to go, Granger," he said flatly.

She didn't understand what he meant, but she assumed he meant that he didn't like the present. She became very flustered, and took the watch from his hands and said, "I am sorry, really, I am. I shouldn't have, I mean, I know it's not much, and I shouldn't assume you would want something that was my father's. I don't know what came over me." She started to run through the stairwell door, and straight to the double doors that led to the Potion's Department.

Draco caught up to her before she could go through the doors and said, "Give me back my watch, Granger. You cannot just give someone something and then just take it back. How rude. Weren't you ever taught manners?" He reached out and took the watch back from her.

"But I thought you didn't want it," she stated.

"Why did you think that? This is probably the most thoughtful present anyone has ever given me. It means more than I could tell you." He kissed her gently on the cheek.

"But why did you say 'way to go Granger'?" she asked.

"Well, I just meant that you showed me up in the 'present department' that's all. Here, you might as well go ahead and open it, although after your great present to me, it seems pretty lame now."

She took the present from him and opened it slowly. It was a black nameplate, and etched in gold was 'Hermione J. Granger, Director of Research and Development'. "Oh Draco, I think this is one of the nicest presents I've ever been given," she told him as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.

"You must have been given some incredibly lousy presents in your day, Hermione. I must rectify that someday. Let's go put this name plate on your office door, shall we?" They walked through the doors and went down the hallway to her office.

Draco let her walk in her office by herself, and said, "Settle in for a moment, Granger, and then get your bum in the conference room by 8:30 for the Monday morning staff meeting." He winked at her and shut the door on his way out.

She fiddled around her desk for a moment, than decided she would go on to the conference room, even though it was only 8 am. As she was walking toward the conference room, witches and wizards started to arrive at their desks, many of them introduced themselves to Hermione, and others just waved hello. She went into the conference room and looked around. She wasn't the only early bird. There was an attractive dark hair wizard already sitting at the right hand side of the head of the table, looking over some files. As she walked in, he stood up and offered her his hand. "Hello, Hermione Granger, correct?" She nodded. "I'm Scott Cohn. I am the head Potion Master here."

"It's great to meet you, Scott," she said as she started to sit.

"You can't sit there," he told her as she pulled out a seat in the center of the table.

"Oh, do we have assigned seats?" she asked with a slight laugh so that he would know she was joking.

"I know you're joking, but yes, we actually do. It was Malfoy's idea. He doesn't want to have to memorize anyone's names or anything, so we all sit according to our jobs. You will be sitting on the other side of Malfoy, across from me," Scott explained.

"That sounds like Malfoy," she responded.

"Yes, I understand you went to school together?" he inquired.

"We did, but we weren't exactly friends with each other back then," she told him.

"Why is that?" he asked. "Because you're a Muggle-born?"

"How did you know?" she started.

"His reputation as a pureblooded bigot precedes him," Scott laughed.

"Well, he's not that bad anymore," she tried to explain, "Although, he did seem to think you and I would have a lot in common because we were both Muggle-borns."

He laughed again. She sat down and smiled at him. Soon, other people started entering the room. Most of them who had not already introduced themselves to Hermione before did so as they came in the room. Everyone was talking enthusiastically amongst himself or herself, until Draco came in. As soon as he entered, a hush filled the room. He sat down at the end of the long table and just said, "Let's begin."

Soon the person sitting on Hermione's left starting to give Draco a report on their recent findings of a new potion that could do, oh, something or other. Frankly, Hermione could not concentrate on what the wizard to her left said for the life of her, because Draco had his hand under the table, and had started squeezing her knee. She reached under the table as well, hoping no one could see, and she tried to remove his hand. It was of no avail, because all this did was make him squeeze harder, and Hermione let out a little squeal. "Yes, Miss Granger, do you have something to add?" Draco asked. She shook her head no.

When the next witch started talking, Draco put his hand back on her leg, but instead of squeezing her knee, this time he took his index finger and started drawing little circles on her outer thigh. This was too much for Hermione. She was so distracted that she didn't even notice when this witch asked her a question. She said, "Excuse me?"

Draco laughed and said, "It appears Miss Granger isn't paying attention on her first day of work. Well, Cohn, how is the new Veritaserum potion coming along?"

Scott started talking about how they were still having problems finding just the right ingredient to make the new Veritaserum potion impervious to all forms of antidotes , and certain ingredients didn't seem to work as they had hoped, and blah…blah...blah. That was all Hermione heard. Draco now had Hermione's calf in his lap and was stroking it up and down. She felt flushed and prayed no one would look under the table and see what was happening. Draco turned to Hermione and said, "You'll be working with Cohn on this, Granger. Do the research on the ingredients he's working with, alright?" She nodded, and then Draco added, "She is usually more talkative than this folks. In fact, in school she was rumored to be the smartest witch of our time, so just believe me when I tell you she actually can talk." Everyone laughed at this and he said, "Get to work everyone."

People started leaving, but seeing how he still had her leg, she was forced to stay. Scott looked at her funny, then looked at Malfoy, and then back to Hermione and he said, "After he lets go of your leg, Hermione, I'll meet you in your office to discuss our potion." He smiled at her, gave Draco a slap on the shoulder, and left.

As soon as everyone left, and the door was closed, Hermione kicked her leg out of his grasp, and she also made sure she kicked him soundly in the groin. He winced in pain and said, "Hell, woman, I think you might have just killed 'little Draco'."

"What in the world did you think you were doing, Malfoy!" she yelled. "What if someone had seen? Hell, Cohn did see! This job is important to me! Besides, I thought we agreed to no more sexual harassment, you arse!"

"Actually, what we agreed to was that you would no longer call me names, which, I must say, 'arse' is a name, and that if I must sexually harass you, then I would do it in private, which I thought under the table was very private." He stood up from his chair, and trapped her beside the door.

"I think all sexual harassment is in private, Malfoy, but if I must clarify, then let me tell you the new rules. No sexual harassment while another person is in the room with us, and that goes for the name calling as well, agreed?" she hissed.

He looked to his left, then to his right, and then leaned his whole body into hers. He said, "No one else is in the room, may I sexually harass you now, Hermione?" He put his cheek next to hers and practically whispered in her ear. He then nibbled on her earlobe, and then licked the side of her neck, before biting her softly on her collarbone. The scent of his aftershave was hypnotic. He continued to nibble his way to her jaw, and the feeling of his mouth on her neck made her feel as if she was jolted by thousands of watts of electricity, repeatedly.

Hermione pushed away from him with her hands, but then leaned into his ear, and said, "You are a prat." He brought his head up, smiled at her, and kissed her quickly on her mouth.

"I love all your witty comebacks, Granger. Prat, prat, prat." He laughed at her, opened the door, turned to look at her and said, "Get to work, Granger; I'm not paying you to stand around and look pretty."

The rest of the morning went very smoothly. She met with Scott, and they came up with many ideas on which ingredients might be missing from the potion he was working on. They went to the lab, and started testing various ingredients in the potion. Before she knew it, it was lunchtime. Harry came to the lab door, knocked, and said, "I was told you were in here. Up for lunch today?" Hermione smiled at Harry and introduced him to Scott. Of course, no one really needed an introduction to Harry, but she introduced him anyway. She went to lunch with Harry, and after lunch spent the rest of the day in the lab.

By quitting time, Draco ducked his head in the lab and said, "Hey, Cohn. Not working her too hard are you?"

Scott looked at the clock and said, "I better get home myself; my wife will kill me if I am late. See you tomorrow, Hermione. I am really interested in testing those ingredients you suggested." Hermione bid him good-bye and went to her office to gather her belonging.

As she started walking to the lifts, Malfoy ran up behind her and asked, "Good first day?"

She smiled broadly at him, and answered with only one word, "Excellent".

"Let's celebrate. How about I take you to dinner?" he asked as they entered the lift.

"Why don't we come to my flat, and I will make us something," she suggested.

"Can you even cook, Granger?" he asked doubtfully.

"Can you, Malfoy?" she batted back.

"I have house elves for that. I don't have to cook. If you really want to eat at your place, the house elves can come there and cook," he leveled.

"Are you afraid of my cooking, Draco?" she asked sweetly, and he nodded yes, to which she lifted her hand and slapped his arm. "You are an arsehole, Malfoy. I can cook. I will prove it to you." With that, she left the lifts and headed to the fireplaces to floo home. Either he would follow her or not, she thought, it was his decision.

They both arrived at her apartment, and she told him to make himself comfortable in her living room, while she went to the kitchen. She walked into the kitchen and started looking around in her cupboards, and her icebox, trying to figure out what she could cook for them. The problem was, all Hermione could find was some tea, bread, cheese, a single apple, two tins of cat food, and a lemon. She also found some stale crackers. Well, wasn't that grand. What in the world was she going to fix? She didn't have any food. He would never let her live this down.

**Monday evening:**

"Oi, Malfoy?" she yelled from the hall, "I'm just going to dash to the market for a moment, and pick up a few things. I'll be back shortly." She started to open her front door when he came up behind her and slammed it shut.

"Are you seriously telling me that you invited me for dinner, and you have no food?" he asked, almost sternly.

"I have food. I just need a few things," she began.

Before she could say anything else, he said, "I'm coming with you."

"No, you don't have to. Anyway, I plan on going to a Muggle market, and I don't think you'll want to go there. Just stay here. I'll be right back." She opened the door again and started out it.

He grabbed her wrist, and then slid the same hand into her hand and said, "Granger, Granger, Granger, when will you ever learn that I only do what I want to do, not what people tell me to do. Now, I'm going to this so called Muggle market with you; after all, I'm not afraid of Muggles; so just point the way." With that, he started walking down the steps to the alley and she had no option but to follow.

When they arrived at the market, Hermione picked up a basket and headed toward the produce. Draco picked up a basket and headed the other direction. 'What in the world does he think he is doing?' Hermione thought. She started putting various vegetables and greens in her basket, along with some bread, and a bottle of wine. She thought she would make them both a big salad. She even got something sweet for pudding. She started toward the cashier, when she saw that Malfoy was directly in front of her, already in line. She tried to look in his basket to see what he had picked out, but he moved his shoulder, so she couldn't see.

"You know, I got us food for tonight. You didn't have to get anything," she plaintively told him.

"Yes, I can see you're planning on poisoning me with healthy food tonight," was his smug response.

"What do you have in your basket?" she asked curiously.

"None of your business," he said back. He looked up at the cashier when it was his turn and smiled sweetly at her and said, "This woman behind me is accosting me, could you possibly call the manager?" The girl, who blushed because she thought that Malfoy was flirting with her, just giggled.

Hermione leaned in toward Malfoy's back, and whispered, "You do know they only take Muggle money here, right?"

"Now she's saying obscene things in my ear," he told the cashier.

He paid for his purchases (with Muggle money) and then left the store, leaving Hermione by herself. As the cashier was checking out Hermione's purchases; with a frown on her face, by the way; Hermione said, "You know we really were together. He was joking about me accosting him." The cashier just rolled her eyes at Hermione and told her the total. Hermione paid and left the store. Draco was standing outside, waiting for her, and he tried to take her bags from her, but she would not let him and walked on by.

"What's wrong?" he asked with a smile.

"Must you embarrass me in a market that I go to all the time?" she turned to him and yelled.

"At least I didn't embarrass you about sex this time, like I did at the bookstore and the coffee shop," he responded back. She continued to walk two steps in front of Malfoy, and when she got to her apartment, she hurried up the stairs and slammed her front door. Malfoy reached the door handle and found that Hermione had locked him out. He knocked on the door and she answered immediately. He figured that she must not be too angry since she let him right in.

They both walked in the kitchen and Hermione started to wash and prepare the vegetables. Draco started putting all the food he bought away. Hermione turned to him and said, "What in the blazes are you doing?"

"I'm putting my food away," he answered, almost in a condescending manner.

"Why are you putting your food away at my house?" she wondered.

"Well, I thought since I plan on spending so much time here, I might like to eat once in a while, and since you don't seem to have any food, I really rather not starve," he said as he continued to put all the junk food he bought away.

"You bought a bunch of rubbish!" she almost yelled.

"And you bought a bunch of rabbit food," he plainly answered back. "Oh, and if you think that I'm such a cheap date that a salad will appease me, well then think again, Miss Granger. Also, I don't know why you bought that wine, unless you plan on getting me drunk and having your way with me, but I must tell you it takes more than dinner and wine to have your way with me." He finished putting his food away, sat on the table, and grinned at her.

"What will it take?" she asked daringly, as she turned to face him.

He got off the table and leaned into her. He put both his arms around her waist and whispered into her ear, "Wouldn't you like to know?" and then he bit her earlobe and kissed her neck.

He leaned back to smirk at her, and she put both her hands against his chest and said, "I think I already know." She turned back around to chop her vegetables with a knife.

He was still standing directly behind her, his arms still around her waist. She could feel his hot breath on her neck. He put his hands on her hips and said, "I bet you do know," and he started to kiss her neck. He continued to kiss her neck, and he reached in front of her and put one hand under her chin, to lean her neck back further, to grant him more access. She was now leaning with her back completely pressed to his chest. He was still kissing her neck, and one of his arms was still around her waist, while the other went up, and quickly brushed her breast on its way up to her face. He leaned her head back more and kissed her lips. This time the kiss held passion and promise.

She finally turned around in his arms, and was facing her prey. Maybe she was the prey. She didn't know. She just knew that she didn't want him to stop. He reached his arms under her bum and lifted her up on her sink. He wanted to get as close to her as he could. He stood between her legs, and with her up on the sink, she was as tall as he was. He started kissing down her collarbone, and started to unbutton her blouse. He was kissing the valley between her breasts. She let out a little moan, and he said, "You're driving me mad," and took her mouth to his once more. The kiss this time was deep and glorious. He again started kissing her chest, while completely unbuttoning her blouse. He cupped one hand under her breast, and reached the other hand behind her to unclasp her bra. She leaned back with both arms behind her, to steady herself, when all of the sudden….PAIN!

Hermione let out a scream and pulled her left hand up to her chest. Draco, who was still half-drunk on his own lust, took a moment even to comprehend what she had done. "What?'" he said in a haze.

"My hand!" she cried.

Coming to his senses, he grabbed her left hand from her right one, and looked. She had a nasty cut on her palm, which was quite deep and long and was bleeding freely. "What did you do?" he asked with concern as he lifted her off the sink to stand her on the floor again.

"I leaned back, and must have cut my hand on the knife," she whimpered. He turned her back around to face the sink and turned on the water. He put her hand under the water and rinsed it off. Then he took a cloth and wrapped her hand. He held it for a moment, and then removed the cloth. It continued to bleed profusely. He wrapped it again, and led her to a chair. He told her to keep pressure on it and he left the room momentarily.

He came back and said, "Don't you have any kind of bandages or ointments in your medicine cabinet?"

"No, I guess not," she said through the pain.

"First no food, then no first aid supplies, I really do wonder how you function by yourself, Granger." He took the cloth from her hand again, and saw that it was still bleeding. "Do you think you could heal this yourself?" he asked her.

"It's not easy to do a healing spell on yourself, Malfoy," she answered. "Do you think you could heal me?"

"I'm not that great at healing cuts, Hermione," he answered in all truthfulness. "I probably have some potion at home that might heal this, or we could always go to St. Mungos?"

"No, I don't like hospitals. Please, just try to heal me, Draco. Just get it over with," she pleaded.

He took his wand and tried a couple of incantations, and finally he got the bleeding to stop. It was still an open wound though, painful and throbbing. He tried to do a spell for the pain, but it didn't really help. He transfigured her dishcloth into some bandages, and dressed the wound the best he could. He then told her to go sit on her couch, and he would finish the salads. She obeyed him and went to her living room. After a few moments, he brought in a tray with their salads and the wine and bread. As he entered the living room with their food, he said, "You know, none of this would have happened if you hadn't insisted on fixing me dinner."

"No, Malfoy," she countered, "none of this would have happened if you hadn't tried to molest me in my kitchen."

After they ate, mostly in silence, he asked, "How's the hand?"

"Still hurts, but fine really, I suppose," she quietly answered. She took another drink of her wine and sighed.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" he turned to her and asked.

"Nothing, I'm just thinking too much," she said with a laugh.

"Yes, you tend to do that." He laughed back.

"It just, well, things were getting kind of intense in the kitchen, don't you think?" she mustered up the courage to ask.

"Yes, I suppose if that damn knife hadn't decided to 'cut' into our fun, we might not even have gotten to dinner…is that what's got you 'thinking', Hermione?" he said evenly.

"Yes," she admitted.

"Well, once again I am going to give you a suggestion. Don't think about things too much. Don't analysis this. Just act. Don't think. I think you will find life more enjoyable that way, Granger," he said as he took a big swig of his wine. He stood up and took her glass from her hand, put both their glasses on the tray, and took the tray into the kitchen. She continued to sit on the couch for a moment, but then decided to follow him. He was using magic to clean up, what a surprise, and he wasn't aware that she had entered the kitchen. She came up behind him and leaned into his back, with her arms around his waist, much like he held her earlier. He looked down at her small hands around his middle, one of them bandaged, and he turned around. If he didn't leave immediately, he knew that things might get 'intense' again, so he told her, "I better go. We both have to work tomorrow." He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. He walked out of the kitchen and started toward her front door. She remained in the kitchen feeling quite alone and sad all of the sudden.

He looked at her and said, "You know, Granger; if you were a decent date you would walk me to the door," and smile at her. She didn't move. He walked back into the kitchen and asked, "What's wrong now?"

She looked up at him and said, "You're not angry with me, are you?"

"Why would I be angry?"

"Well, I mean, even if I hadn't cut my hand, I still don't think I would have been ready to sleep with you. What do you think about that?" she asked timidly.

She was looking at the floor, not at him. He walked up to her, and raised her chin.  
"Gee, Granger, I told you it would take more than dinner and wine to get me in the sack anyways, so don't worry about it. In addition, I told you Saturday that I would never make you do anything you didn't want to do, and I meant it. If you're not ready to sleep with me, although I still think you're being presumptuous to assume I was going to even think about that, then I respect that you're not ready. That's fine with me. It doesn't change a thing my little lion." He bent down and kissed her gently on the lips. He then smiled down at her and added, "Now be a decent date and walk me to the door woman."

They walked to Hermione's front door and he kissed her on the cheek once again and said, "I will see you tomorrow, love," and with that, he apparated away.

_End of Day Four_


	5. Day Five Tuesday

**all characters belong to JKR**

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**Chapter 5: Day Five Tuesday**

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**Day Five**

**Early Tuesday Morning:**

Draco was already at his desk when Hermione arrived to work on her second morning. She popped her head in to say 'hello', but saw that he was with the Minister of Magic, as well as Scott Cohn. She paused at the open door when she saw them, and waited outside for a moment. She heard Percy Weasley say, "I really do wish you would change your mind, Draco, but if that's how you feel, then I will respect your wishes. I hope you know what you're doing."

Not wanting to eavesdrop any longer, Hermione walked in and said, "Hello Percy, how are you?"

Percy got up from his chair and embraced Hermione. "Hermione, I'm so glad to see you. You know my mother still misses you at Sunday dinners. Should I tell her you'll be there this Sunday?"

"I don't know Minister, perhaps. I'll let you know."

Percy told them all goodbye and left the office. Draco looked at Hermione and asked, "How's the hand?"

"Still throbbing, actually," she said truthfully.

"What did you do to your hand?" Scott asked. Hermione told him she cut it on a knife, and he asked to see the cut. He told her to stay there and he would return with some ointment to put on it.

"What did Percy want?" Hermione asked timidly.

"Nothing." Draco responded curtly.

Scott came in and unwrapped Hermione's hand, and then applied the ointment on the cut. He then conjured some new bandages and re-wrapped her hand. He told her when she was ready to work, to come to the lab and find him. She thanked him and then turned to Draco, who had a somewhat angry expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.

"Scott was being a bit forward, don't you think. You could have applied the paste yourself. And why did he think he had to be the one to wrap your wound?" Draco complained.

"Oh for goodness sakes, Malfoy, are you jealous or something? The man is married after all," Hermione rolled her eyes as she said this.

"Yes, and we all know married men never cheat on their wives," Draco said sarcastically.

"Listen, if you don't trust Scott, at least trust me. I only have eyes for you," she joked.

Draco stood from his chair and shut the door to his office. He seemed in a very serious mood this morning. He walked over to Hermione and held her hands. "I trust you Hermione, but I know Cohn can be a real cad sometimes. He lets on like he's a nice person, but he has cheated on his wife before, and he's very self-serving. Just be careful," he said as he kissed her fingertips.

She turned to go, and Draco added, "Oh and I only have eyes for you, too." She smiled, and he stated, "See you at lunch. I have someplace to take you." She nodded her head and left his office.

She walked to the lab and she and Scott got straight to work. They spent most of the morning trying different ingredients, but none of them helped the potion on which they were currently working. Hermione suddenly got an idea. "You know Scott, I happen to remember that there's a certain plant that grows in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts, called Aspergilla, and if I remember correctly, if infused with Wormwood, it can elevate the effects of many potions. Perhaps we could try to add it to the new Veritaserum potion, and see if it makes the Veritaserum antidote ineffective. Maybe we should make a day trip there tomorrow and collect some, and just try it out."

"That's a great idea, Hermione," Scott began, "but I have to take tomorrow off, my wife has a very important appointment, and she wants me to go with her." Hermione thought that was very sweet of him, that he would go with his wife to an appointment. She was beginning to wonder if Draco lied about him cheating on her, when he added, "Maybe we could go tomorrow evening though, and spend the night, and get up early the next morning to search for the Aspergilla."

"Maybe I could just go tomorrow by myself. Or, I could take one of my assistants," Hermione told him. She didn't think it was necessary to 'spend the night' anywhere with him.

At lunch, Hermione went to find Draco. Scott agreed that Hermione should just go by herself, even though she was pretty sure when she told Draco about it, he would want to go with her. At least, that is what she hoped would happen.

On the way to her own office to collect her bag, she was surprised to find Draco sitting at her desk. He said, "About time, it's 15 minutes past noon."

"Sorry, didn't know we had a set time," she joked. She grabbed her bag, and walked down the hallway with Draco to the lifts. Once they got on the lifts, Hermione turned to Draco and said, "I'm going to Hogwarts tomorrow to look for a plant that grows in the Forbidden Forest. I already got approval from the Head Mistress."

"Is Cohn going?" Draco looked at her as he asked.

"Well, he said he couldn't go during the day, so he suggested that we go in the evening, and stay the night and then look for the plant on Thursday morning," Hermione told him. She waited to see what he would say, but he just had a very set look on his face. He continued to look at the lift doors until they finally opened.

He finally spoke, "So, you're leaving tomorrow evening and coming back Thursday afternoon then?" He was walking toward the floo network, still not even glancing at Hermione.

"No, I told him that I would just go tomorrow morning, by...my...self," she said with emphasis on the last three words. He turned to her and smiled.

"You can't go to the Forbidden Forest by yourself; I'll go with you," and he took her hand to wait their turn to leave. Hermione smiled this time. She had hoped he would want to go.

"We'll meet here tomorrow morning and floo right to Hogsmeade. We can worry about how to get to Hogwarts from there," she responded, "by the way, where are we going?"

Malfoy turned to her, took her arm, put in some floo power and said, "Malfoy Manor" and they were gone.

They arrived at the manor, and house truly looked abandoned. All the furniture in the Foyer was covered with white cloths. Two old house elves met them at the fireplace, and asked Draco if he would be staying, and did they need anything. He told them no, and then asked Hermione if she would like a tour. What a stupid question. She always wondered what the rest of Malfoy Manor looked like.

The tour of the house took over an hour. Hermione lost count at 42 rooms. She was in awe of the library. It was almost as large as the library at Hogwarts. She said, "It's a shame this place is going to waste. These books could really do some people some good. This whole house would make a wonderful school actually."

"You want to turn my ancestral home into a school?" he said dumbfounded. "Do you ever think of anything but books and learning?"

She merely gave him a dirty look and they continued their walk. When they arrived at the steps, which led down to the dungeon, Draco said, "I don't want you to go any farther, okay? I need to go down to our family vaults and get a few things. Just wait here, or go back to the library, but do not wander off. There are many secret passageways and strange things that go on in this house, and I don't want to spend the next ten years looking for you." He proceeded down the stairs, and she sat on the top step for only a few moments, when she decided she would go back to the library, if she could find it again.

Draco was gone for a very long time. It was after three o'clock when he returned. He walked into the library and asked, "Are you ready to get back?"

"For goodness sakes Draco, we've been gone three hours! What will people at work think?" she pleaded.

"They'll think that we went home for lunch, had a good long shag, and then came stumbling back into work three hours later," he told her, with no hint of humour on his face.

"Yes, I know that's what they'll think, and I don't want them to think that!" She walked on to the great foyer by herself, and stood by the fireplace to wait for Malfoy.

When he finally came up to her, he said, in complete seriousness, "You know, sometimes you're no fun at all. You're so uptight and wound-up. Would it kill you to just let go and have fun once in a while, Granger?"

"What does my being afraid of office gossip have to do with letting go and having fun, Malfoy?" she argued.

"Never mind, your little uptight brain can't process the idea of 'letting go' anyway," he retorted. He grabbed her arm, threw the floo powder in, and took them back to the Ministry.

This time he walked ahead of her all the way back to the office. Why was he upset with her? She didn't make them late coming back from lunch. She went directly to her office, and decided to look up as much information about Aspergilla as she could. Before she knew it, it was 5:30 pm. Most of the staff had already left, including Malfoy. He didn't even tell her goodbye. This would be the first day all week that they didn't spend the evening together. She went home, and decided to floo Harry and Ginny to see if they wanted to go out to dinner tonight. They weren't home, and neither were Ron and Lavender. Finally, at about seven pm, she got a bath, put on a t-shirt and shorts, and made herself some tea and toast for dinner.

"Looks like it's just you and me tonight, Crookshanks," she said as she sat at her kitchen table, with a book opened, ready to be read. She kept expecting Malfoy to knock at her door, or to floo, or something. For goodness sakes, what made him so angry today? Was he seriously angry because he thought her incapable of having fun? Was that any reason to be angry?

She decided to ask him that directly. She was going to go to his apartment and just ask him outright what his problem was. She changed to some jeans and a button-up shirt, and apparated to his building. She knew he had wards up, so she couldn't just enter, so she knocked on his door. Before long, Hermione heard a woman's voice say, "I'll get it, Draco." Before Hermione could make sense of this, the same woman opened the door. "Hello," she said to Hermione.

At first Hermione thought, 'maybe this is the wrong apartment', but he lived in the penthouse, which meant he had the entire top floor. She must have looked confused, because the woman spoke again, and said, "May I help you with something?"

"Is Draco here?" Hermione finally asked.

"He's taking a shower, but I suppose you could come on in," she said as she opened the door for Hermione, but Hermione was having serious second thoughts about entering.

"That's alright," Hermione finally spoke, "I work with Malfoy, and we have a business trip to take tomorrow, and I was just going to go over a few things with him, but I'll just see him tomorrow at work before we leave." Hermione turned to go.

The woman said, "No, come on in. We were just getting ready to eat, but you can join us if you'd like. I'm sure Draco wouldn't mind, especially if you're coworkers." The woman still held the door open, and at that moment, Draco came walking out of his room and down the hall toward the woman, in nothing but a towel. He did not yet see Hermione in the doorway.

"Who is it, sweetheart?" Draco asked the woman.

"Someone who works with you. She didn't give me her name," the woman answered. Draco came closer to the door, and opened it further to peer out in the hall and all he saw was the backside of Hermione, as she was running down the hall toward the lift.

She pushed the button and looked back. She looked directly into Malfoy's eyes. It took him a second to realize it was she, and he called out, "Granger!" just as the lift doors opened and Hermione ran in. She felt like such a fool. Since she could not let loose and have fun, he decided to find someone who could. Or else, maybe he was seeing this woman before he even started seeing her. After all, Hermione and Draco had only been seeing each other less than a week. There was no commitment. No obligation. Right? By the time the lift reached the bottom, Hermione was crying. She ran out of the lift toward the foyer of his building, when she saw Draco standing at the front doors. She could have just apparated directly back to her flat, but she had to take the lifts, and now she had to deal with him! Great!

She looked at him and didn't know what to do. He was still in his towel. He started toward her, when she decided to get back on the lift. She tried to push to button to close the door, when she saw his hand reach out and push the doors back open.

"What the Hell!" he yelled, "What do you think you're doing? Stop running away from me and tell me what the hell is going on?" He stood so close to her that water from his still wet hair splashed on her face.

"Leave me alone, Malfoy," she yelled back. She tried to push the lobby button on the elevator, but instead, Draco reached the buttons first and pushed the "Stop" button.

"What are you doing, woman?" he asked her again, while tightening his towel around his waist.

"Well apparently I'm interrupting your date. Why don't you just go back upstairs to your companion, and have your dinner. Let loose and have some fun! I'll see you tomorrow." She turned from him, and tried to wipe the tears out of her eyes.

"You're stupid," was all he said.

She turned back toward him, looked at him with shock in her eyes, and said, "EXCUSE ME?"

"I said, you...are...stupid," he exclaimed again.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"Well, generally, it means someone is not very smart. However, if you want the dictionary definition of the word, I'll look it up for you later," he said as he leaned against the wall of the lift.

She walked up to him and with each word spoken; she pointed her finger directly at this chest and said, "Don't Ever Call Me Stupid Again."

"I just call them like I see them, Granger," he said arrogantly.

That made her so angry that she screamed and then she did what she did best. Yep, Hermione Granger slapped Draco Malfoy right across his freshly, showered face.

He quickly grabbed her wrist, and pulled it behind her back, in doing so he also pulled her up against his chest. She tried to hit him with her free hand and he grabbed it also and put in behind her back. Holding both of her hands in one of his, he took his free hand, grabbed her chin very roughly, and told her very deliberately, "If you ever strike me again, Miss Granger, I believe it will be the last time. I don't believe in hitting women, but with you, my dear, I will make the exception." He had her in such a tight hold, that every time she tried to squirm out of his arms, he would just tighten his hold more.

Finally, she screamed, "LET ME GO! You're hurting me, Malfoy!"

He didn't want to hurt her, so he let her go so suddenly that she lost her footing and fell to the floor. He honestly didn't mean for that to happen and he looked quite shocked. He reached down to help her up, but she slapped his hand away. She stood on her own and reached for the "Stop" button to release it, but he got there first and stood in front of the panel of buttons.

"You aren't going anywhere, Granger, until you tell me why you're so upset. What happened up there to make you so angry?" he said slowly, with no more malice in his voice.

"Let's start at the beginning, you prat!" She started to pace around the elevator as she talked, almost like a caged animal, and Malfoy was more than a little afraid.  
"First, you get all jealous today because you think I can't be trusted around Scott. Then you take me to Malfoy Manor, leave me for hours by myself, and make me late getting back to work. Then you make light of my feelings about what people will think, and then you more or less tell me that I'm a tired old stick in the mud, who wouldn't know fun if it came up a bit me on the arse. THEN, you leave work without even telling me goodbye. I can only assume you're angry with me, so I come over! I COME OVER! To apologize. APOLOGIZE!" she continued in a rage, "and I find that you have a beautiful woman over for dinner, and I see you walking out of the shower almost naked, and THAT IS WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON, MALFOY!"

He seemed genuinely confused. "What?" he asked.

"Then you have the gall to call me STUPID!" she added. She turned away from him, but she could hear him laughing. He was actually laughing at her. She turned back toward him with complete fury in her eyes, and inquired, "Why are you laughing, you idiot?"

"You really are stupid, Granger," he said between laughs.

Hermione could not take it any longer. She pulled out her wand and put it under his chin. This he took quite serious, and stopped laughing immediately. "What are you going to do with your wand, Granger? Are you going to hex me? For what? For laughing at you? Calling you stupid? Or for being jealous that I was with another woman?" he asked slowly.

Hermione walked closer to Malfoy, and pushed her wand firmly into the middle of his chest and said, "I've hexed plenty of Death Eaters in my day, Malfoy, so don't tempt me."

He grabbed the wrist holding the wand, and said, "Well, do it, Mudblood".

**Still Tuesday Night**:

Hermione only saw red. She was that angry. Therefore, she _did_ hex him. Before she even comprehended what she was doing, red sparks came out of her wand and she hexed him, with a silent spell. He collapsed, unconscious, before her. She was in shock. She couldn't believe she did it. She bent over his unconscious form, and shook him. He was out like a light. He was also now completely naked as his towel fell away. She transfigured the towel into slacks and said a spell to dress him. Then she released the "Stop" button. Hermione knew she was in a lot of trouble. She would probably go to jail for this, but more important, any kind of love that Malfoy had previously had for her was surely gone now. The lift doors opened, and she ran over to his body, performed the Rennervate spell to reverse the Stupefy, and before she even looked down to make sure he was alright, she jumped over his body and ran out into the night, not even sure where she was going to go.

She knew she would have to turn herself in. Malfoy would certainly press charges for this. She cringed when she thought of what she did. When the authorities ask her why she did it, what was she going to say? He called me stupid, oh yeah, and added a Mudblood in there as well. Hermione couldn't stand the thought of going to the Ministry to report her crime, so she decided to go to Harry's flat and surrender to him. She apparated in front of Harry's door and rang the bell. He opened his door, and she fell into his arms crying. "What's wrong?" he asked her.

"I did something so terrible. I hexed Malfoy. I left him on the floor in the middle of the lift at his apartment building. You need to go send someone there to check on him, and then arrest me. I'm turning myself in," she cried.

"What do you mean?" he asked, as he forced her to sit.

"I don't have time to explain it all to you, Harry. Please, please just go get someone over to his place to check that he's alright, and then I'll tell you everything," she sobbed.

He decided just to go himself. He told her to stay there, and to wake up Ginny and tell her he would be back shortly. Harry left and Hermione felt so awful and alone. How could she do something like that? Now she would lose her job, and be prosecuted, just like what almost happened last Friday. Hermione was so distraught that she got up and left Harry's flat. She started walking the streets of Muggle London, crying, and trying to figure out what she was going to do now.

When Harry got to Malfoy's apartment building, he was no longer in the lift. He went up to Draco's flat and banged on the door. Malfoy answered, and said, "What the hell do you want, Potter?" Draco was holding a towel up to the back of his head, where blood was freely flowing. He was now quite alone.

"Hermione told me to find you. She said she was turning herself in, and that I was to arrest her, because she hexed you. What happened, Malfoy?" Harry sat down opposite Draco on the couch and looked at him, pleading.

"Nothing happened. She's delusional. I was not hexed. I fell and hit my head in the shower. Go tell her no one is getting arrested tonight, and to go home and get some sleep and I'll see her tomorrow morning before we leave for Hogwarts." Draco stood up and opened his door for 'the Boy Wonder' to leave.

"Draco, she didn't seem delusional. If she said she hexed you, then I believe her, and if that was what happened, then as an Auror I have to take this seriously. She could be in big trouble. What happened tonight to make her hex you?" Harry asked while standing.

"Nothing happened, Potter! Listen, it was just a big misunderstanding. She saw someone here with me and misunderstood things, and took some things I said the wrong way. It's as much my fault as hers. I'll not have you arresting her, because I refuse to bring her up on charges. Let me go get dressed and I'll go talk to her myself, alright?" Draco finished. He headed toward his bedroom and in a matter of minutes he was dressed and standing beside Harry.

"Do you want to see about that head injury first?" Harry asked.

"No, I deserved it. I called her a Mudblood," Draco responded flatly.

Harry turned toward Draco so fast that Draco was scared for the second time that evening. Harry said, "I told you last Friday at dinner that if you ever, and I meant it, Malfoy, if you ever did anything to hurt Hermione, that I would kill you. That was not an empty threat. I will not go to prison for it, because there won't be any evidence. Did you not take me serious when I told you that?" Harry spoke very firmly, all the while twirling his wand between his fingers, and then pointing it at Draco's chest.

"Listen, Potter, she gave as good as she got tonight, okay? I didn't mean to call her that, but she called me a Death Eater first, so to get back at her I called her that name. I'm sorry about it, but I cannot undo it. Now take me to her so I can explain all of this mess to her myself." Draco pushed Harry's hand, with wand, out of his way and walked out the door. Harry had no choice but to follow.

When Draco and Harry arrived at Harry's apartment, all they found was Ginny, standing in the middle of their living room, demanding that they tell her why she just saw Hermione run out of their front door crying.

"Oh my god, Potter, she could be anywhere. She's afraid, and she thinks she's going to be arrested," Draco spat.

"Why would she be arrested?" Ginny demanded.

"She hexed Malfoy tonight, and she came to me to turn herself in, and I told her to stay put, but she must have gotten scared and ran away," Harry explained.

"What did you do, you stupid ferret?" Ginny gasped as she actually grabbed Malfoy's collar.

"Make your little wife unhand me, Potter!" Draco exclaimed. "I'm going to go look for her. Come if you want, Potter, but I'm leaving now." Draco stormed out of the Potter's flat, with Ginny and Harry close behind.

They spent hours searching for her. They went to the Ministry, and then went to her flat; they went back to the graveyard where Malfoy found her at last Friday. They went everywhere they could think. It was close to dawn and they were running out of options. Harry told Draco to go home, get a few hours of sleep, and then he would meet him at the Ministry later. Harry was going to have some of the other Aurors look for her as well. They all decided to keep the reason for her disappearance to themselves, and just to tell everyone she had not returned home after visiting at Harry's flat that evening.

_End of Day Five_


	6. Day Six Wednesday

**all characters belong to JKR**

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**Chapter 6: Day Six Wednesday**

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**Day Six**

**Wednesday, at Dawn -**

Draco went home and took another shower. His head hurt like hell. There was no way he was going to get any sleep at all. He told one of his house elves to prepare him some coffee. He decided to take it to the roof, and to drink it up there, while the sun was rising.

He walked up to the roof with his coffee in hand and he saw her. Hermione was asleep on the swing on his roof. She looked as lost and forlorn as she had looked that time he found her in the graveyard. He put his coffee down on the table and walked over to her. He bent down and pushed her hair out of her eyes. She was lying on her side, facing him. He brushed his lips against her forehead and said, "Hermione, wake up, everything's okay."

She woke with a start. She saw Draco looking down at her, and she immediately sat up. She was slightly disoriented, but then everything came back to her. The first thing out of her mouth was, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I have a slight concussion, and I am a little bit embarrassed at having been found unconscious, but at least dressed, by my neighbour. I told him I had too much to drink, and he helped me back up to my flat," he said, while actually smiling at her.

"Was your female friend upset that you left her for so long?" she asked so silently, he almost did not hear her.

"You mean my cousin, Cassandra? She had already left when I got back upstairs. I guess she had better things to do then wait around for me. She was only going to be in town one night and she had other people to see as well."

"Your cousin?" she asked plaintively.

"Yes, Hermione, my cousin. Now see how easy things are to explain when you aren't all angry and ready to hex someone," he said, as he smiled at her. He picked up her feet from the end of the swing and sat down, putting them on his lap.

"Did Harry find you last night?" she asked.

"Yes, and I must say, he's as frightening as you are. When he found out I called you a 'Mudblood' he threatened to, and I quote "kill me", in no uncertain terms, and leave no evidence behind. He told me that you turned yourself in to be arrested, but when we returned to his flat, you were gone. Do you realize there are as many as six Aurors out there looking for you as we speak?" he said.

Hermione sighed as she swung her feet to the ground. "Then I should go turn myself in. I was just so scared last night, so I ran. I wanted to make sure you were fine, but I couldn't get into your flat, so I just came up here. Do you think they will arrest me right away, or do you suppose I will have time to go home and change?" she implored.

"Why would you be arrested?" he said, mocking her.

"I hexed you! You said they are searching for me as we speak!" she said with much alarm. "I'm so very sorry, Draco. I deserve to go prison. I'm a terrible person. I know you won't ever forgive me, but I really am so sorry." She put her face in her hands and began to cry.

"Listen, as much as I would like to call you stupid right now, I'm not ever going to call you that again; because I value my life too much, but you ARE being rather silly, Hermione. They're looking for you because Harry and I were worried about you. I'm not pressing charges. I deserved to be hexed and much more. I should never have called you that name, but you must admit, if you had just calmly entered my flat when my cousin invited you in, or if you had taken just a moment to hear me out about everything in the lift, then we wouldn't be in this predicament, would we?" he asked her.

He then said, "Stay here. I really mean it. Don't move at all. I'm going to go tell Harry you're fine. Don't move a single muscle." He got up from the swing and went to the door to the stairs to go down to his flat. Hermione took his words at face value and literally did not move at all. She sat quietly on the swing and awaited his return.

When he came back upstairs, he said, "That's all taken care of; now let's not dwell on last night anymore. We both said things we shouldn't have. I was being a bastard at the office when I said you were incapable of having fun and letting go, and I was being a bastard by not telling you goodbye when I left work. Furthermore, I should have told you I was meeting my cousin for dinner, but I have to admit I was a little peeved at you, and wanted to worry you a bit." He finally stopped talking, and walked over to her and stood her up. "Your turn, Granger, do you have anything to say to me?" he raised one eyebrow and stared at her.

She stood and put both her arms around his waist and hugged him tighter than she had ever hugged anyone before. Without looking at him, she said, "I should never have called you a Death Eater, because I know you never were one, and that's just as bad of a name as Mudblood, so I am sorry for that."

She looked up at him, while still holding his waist, and added, "I was actually coming over to your flat last night to see if you were angry with me, because you left without saying goodbye and because I was always so uptight, and never have any fun. I should have waited for your explanation, but when I heard you call that beautiful woman 'sweetheart' and you came out in only your towel, well, all my old insecurities came back." She tucked her head back onto his chest to continue. "However, that doesn't justify calling you that name, or stupefying you. I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, but if you think you can forgive me, I would like to start again, Malfoy." She looked up at him again, finally daring to take a breath, and he answered the only was he thought was appropriate. He kissed her soundly, and passionately, on the lips.

Wwhen they broke apart, he asked, "Do you still feel like taking our trip to Hogwarts, or do you want to wait until tomorrow?"

"Let's go today. I just need to go home and shower. I actually feel quite rested," she murmured into his chest.

He tilted her head up, and kissed her on the forehead. He said, "I'll meet you at the Ministry at 8 am, Granger. Oh, yeah, and, I would like to start over again as well. After all, we already have a standing date for this coming Friday, do we not?"

She looked confused and inquired, "We do?"

"Yes, remember last Saturday, when you told me you would answer my two questions on Friday, if I would make you a promise the same day? Well, I'm holding you to that, Granger. That is a set date if I ever heard of one. Oh, and I now have three questions to ask you on our date," he added.

She laughed, hugged him again, and said, "I won't stand you up on Friday. See you at 8:00 am, Draco." With that said, she smiled, waved, and apparated away.

Draco stood on his roof for a moment longer, took his cup of coffee from the table and sat on the swing. "I know I will never be bored all of my days, with that one," he said to himself, but aloud. He took a drink of coffee and smiled to himself as he watched the sunrise.

**Wednesday, ****8:00 am**

Draco met Hermione in the lobby of the Ministry of Magic, shortly after 8:00 am. She did look rather well rested, all things considering. She had her hair pulled back in a ponytail, old jeans, light blue t-shirt and a grey sweatshirt tied around a big black backpack. She also had on hiking boots. Hermione thought Draco looked like a zombie. You could tell he had not gotten much sleep, from the dark circles under his eyes. He had on dark jeans and a grey t-shirt, and a black jacket tied around his waist. Over his shoulder, he had a small black bag.

She approached him, and he took her bag from her. "You really look tired," she said obviously.

"Yeah, I wonder why? Oh yeah, I was hexed last night with a Stupefy hex, then I spent the rest of the night looking for my attacker," he smirked.

"Sorry," she said.

He swung her bag over his shoulder and said, "Gee, Granger, what do you have in here? Half of your flat, or what?"

"Just some things we might need. What's in your little tiny bag….hair gel?" she asked coyly.

They got in line at the fireplaces and got ready to floo to Hogsmeade. When apparated to a little Inn called "The Firefly Inn" and Draco said, "I'm going to get us a room. We might want to rest and take showers when we get back from our little outing." He went to the front desk as she waited outside by the front door. When he came back out, he said, "Ready for our nature walk, Granger?"

"Only if you are," she retorted back.

They walked down the road that would lead them to Hogwarts. She said, "This brings back a lot of memories, doesn't it, Malfoy?" He just nodded in agreement. They walked a little farther, and she asked, "Is everything okay?"

Again, he just nodded. He was too tired to speak.

She didn't like the silence. She decided to keep talking, even if he was going to play dumb. She said, "You just seem so distant." He again was silent, and merely looked at her. Now she knew it was not just her imagination. She decided to keep talking, "At first I thought I was just imagining things that weren't there or over analyzing as you like to say, but now I realize that something is just not right since you aren't even talking to me." She continued walking, while he came to a complete stop. She turned to look at him, with her hands on her hips, in a very confrontation way.

He could tell she was challenging him, and he was frankly too tired to fight. He just said, "I'm just tired, Granger. Anyway, you seem to be talking enough for the both of us, and since you like to hear yourself speak so much, I thought I would just let you have a go at it."

She turned back around and starting walking again. 'Fine, he doesn't want me to talk. I won't talk', she thought. He finally was the one to break their silence when they reached the gates of Hogwarts. "You've seen rather distant as well, you know."

"I know. I just still feel weird about last night, and apparently you do, too." She tapped her wand on the gates, and was admitted entrance. He looked at her with astonishment and she merely replied, "McGonagall told me how to do that." They walked on to the grounds and headed toward the forest. It felt very strange to be back at Hogwarts, for both of them.

**Wednesday, Late Morning:**

Once again, Hermione was the one to end their silence. "Funny thing," she started, "the last time we were here we were sworn enemies, and look at us now."

He finally broke his silence by asking her, "What are we now, Granger?"

"I don't frankly know what we are, Malfoy," she answered honestly.

"Well, let me take a stab at this one," he said slyly, "we aren't friends, because we have done things friends would never do to one another…"

"Like stupefying each other," she interrupted meekly.

"I was actually talking about kissing, but they both apply," he continued. "We're more than just acquaintances, we're more than just friends, as previously established, but we aren't lovers, since we haven't been intimate yet, for want of a better word. I guess that means we are….what?" He stopped walking and pulled on her arm to make her stop.

"I thought you were going to tell me," she said smugly.

"Fine, Granger, I guess we are 'boyfriend and girlfriend'. Even though that sounds very juvenile," he responded.

She actually laughed. "It does sound odd. Tell me, are we exclusive boyfriend/girlfriend, or are we free to see others?" she asked.

They continued walking and talking, and were just entering the Forbidden Forest, when he finally asked back, "Do you want to be exclusive?'

"Do you?" she bounced back.

"The question is in your court first, Granger, so will you just answer?" he asked with a frown.

"Are we playing a game of questions only?" she asked him.

"Will you answer the question if I said yes?" he asked back.

"I'll answer, but are you willing to do the same?" she questioned him with a smile.

"Do you think if I answer, it will help pass the time?" he inquired.

"I don't know, do you?" asked Hermione.

"Where do we begin?" Draco inquired.

"Do you suppose we begin by just asking questions, and responding with questions as well?" - Hermione.

"If you fail to answer a question, do you lose?" - Draco.

"I don't know, do you?" - Hermione.

"Do you want to start?" - Draco.

"Don't you think we already have?" - Hermione.

"Do you really care?" - Draco.

"Don't you think I care?" - Hermione.

"What if I said I didn't?" - Draco.

"What, didn't care? Or didn't start?" - Hermione.

"Are you trying to confuse me?" - Draco.

"Do you think that would be difficult?" - Hermione, (laughing).

"Are you trying to be funny?" - Draco.

"Do you think this game of 'questions only' is hard?" - Hermione

"Not for me, but is it for you?" - Draco.

"What does that mean?" - Hermione.

"Well, aren't you smarter and more perfect than everyone else?" - Draco.

"Don't you think that's the pot calling the kettle black?" – Hermione.

"Is that Muggle talk again?" - Draco.

"Why, can't you understand me?" - Hermione

"Can YOU just answer the question?" - Draco.

"Can you repeat the question?" - Hermione.

"Do you think you're more perfect and smarter than everyone else?" - Draco.

"Was that the question?" – Hermione.

"I don't know, do you think that's the question?" – Draco.

"Do you think I am more perfect and smarter than you?" - Hermione.

"You probably think that I think that, don't you?" - Draco.

"I frankly don't know what you think, but don't you think this is getting too hard?" Hermione asked with a huff.

"Do you think it's getting too hard?" Draco asked.

"Didn't I just say that I thought it was getting to hard?", she asked back, all the while thinking, 'What a bastard.' She thought of another question, "Is your neck strong enough to carry all that weight from your big head?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing; only, I wonder if your neck can support the weight of all that bushy hair?" Draco asked with a laugh.

"My hair is no longer bushy, you fat headed prat!" she yelled.

"That wasn't in the form of a question so I guess I win the game of 'questions only' aye, Granger?" With that said, Draco continued walking deep into the forest ahead of Hermione.

A little later, he slowed down so she could catch up to him, and she said, "What an accomplishment, Malfoy, you won a game of 'questions only'. Does that make you feel good? Can you get out of the rotten mood you're in now?" she asked.

"We aren't playing the stupid game anymore, Golden Girl, so stop asking questions. I also think we should probably get out our wands. We're getting pretty deep in the forest now," he retorted back to her.

Actually, getting out her wand was a good suggestion. She reached for her bag from his outstretched hand, and opened it to retrieve her wand. She started to swing the bag over her shoulder, when he said, "Give it here."

"No, it's not fair that you have to carry it the whole way," she reprimanded him.

He said, "Here, you take mine, and I'll take yours."

She gladly switched with him, because her bag was indeed heavy, and his felt like it weighed nothing at all. "Do you even have anything in here, Malfoy?" she asked him.

"It's called 'Magic', Granger. Have you ever heard of it? You just shrink down whatever you pack, and then enlarge the item when you need them." He actually rolled his eyes at her. He had to admit, that for a smart woman, sometime she did lack common sense.

She had not even thought to shrink her supplies today, even though she had done that type of thing in the past. She told him, "Sometimes the fact that I grew up Muggle influences how I do things. I don't take magic for granted, like some people."

After telling him all of this, he just looked at her incredulously, and said, "Aren't you supposed to be the smartest witch of our age? What does that say for the rest of us?" He just shook his head in disbelief.

It was a beautiful sunny day. Not too warm, with a nice breeze, but as they got deeper and deeper into the dense forest, the sunlight began to hide more, and was replaced with streaks of shadow mingled with light. "Do you remember where this damn plant is, Hermione? We have walked quite a ways already," he said as he stopped to take a water bottle out of his bag. She stopped and put her bag on the ground, and reached in for a book. He handed her his water, and she took a swig. She handed it back to him and then picked up her book and turned to a place she had marked.

"It says here that Aspergilla grow mostly in the deep, dark confines of the Forbidden Forest. It's usually at the base of conifer trees, and while it's sparse, and mostly hidden behind moss and tree roots, if you're lucky to stumble upon one plant, you'll usually find more than one plant. It also says that the smell strongly resembles night blooming jasmine," she read.

"Does it show a picture?" He leaned over her shoulder to look at the book.

"Yes, see, it is a small white flower, with five petals, and a red stem. I think I have another picture of it in one of these other books as well." She put the first large book on the ground, and opened her bag to retrieve one of the others. He looked shocked that she even had one book, let alone more, in her bag. He bent over, looked in her bag, and found not only one more book, but also two more books, making four in all.

"Are you telling me your bag has nothing but books in it, Granger?" he asked with astonishment.

She looked up from her book, and sincerely asked, "What did you ask?"

"Your bag, you little bookworm! Did you only bring books? No provisions? Food? Water? Change of clothes?" He started rummaging through her bag, and besides the books, she had a toothbrush, toothpaste, two granola bars, one bottle of water, and a change of underwear. He started to throw everything out of her bag, while mumbling things like, "No wonder it was so heavy!" and, "What is she going to do if there's an emergency?"

Hermione stood there in shock. She was also quite embarrassed, because he frankly had a point, but he didn't have to empty her bag on the ground. Before she could chastise him, he took her toothbrush, toothpaste, the granola bars and the water bottle and put them in his bag. He took her extra set of knickers and balled them up in his fist, and actually stuck them in his pocket. Then he said, "We'll leave all the books here, and get them on our way out!" He took the book she had in her hand, threw it harshly on the ground, kicked her bag from them as if it was an offending vermin, and left the other three books on the ground.

He took her by the hand and continued to lead her down the path. She was embarrassed, but she was also upset. Two of those books weren't even hers. She had borrowed the Herbology books from Neville. She pulled on his arm, and refused to go any further. "What the hell, Malfoy! I know you're tired, and you're in a rotten mood, but don't take your mood out on me. If I'm willing to carry my own bag, books and all, then that's my business." She walked back down the path, and grabbed her bag and loaded it with the offensive books. She then walked up to him and said, "What did you bring in your bag, Mister Nature?" She grabbed his bag from him and proceeded to empty it on the ground. He merely stood and stared at her, with his hands on his hips.

When she saw only sensible provisions (like a knife, matches, food, water, change of clothing, compass, healing potion, etc.) she was even more embarrassed by what was in her bag. He brought along the types of things people should bring when they go to the woods. He started to pick up his items, along with her things that he had previously put in his bag. He packed them all away, then grabbed her bag off her shoulder, proceeded to shrink it was well. He put her bag inside his, reached for her hand, and with no real malice in his voice said, "Let's go."

After they were walking a while, and the path was getting more treacherous, he finally asked her, "Why did you only bring a change of knickers, Hermione? Why not an entire change of clothes? What were you intending on doing out here that you might need to change your underwear?" He laughed at that last part.

She asked, "Why did you stuff my knickers in your pocket?"

He laughed again, and reached into his pocket to retrieve her knickers. She took them from him, when he said, "I put them in there instead of in my bag, because I was going to tease you about them later. I mean really, Granger, white cotton granny panties." He took them back from her. "Could you BE sexier, Granger?" he added with a small laugh. He then put them soundly into his bag and took her hand again.

"They aren't granny panties," she said a moment later, in a small voice.

"Okay, whatever you say," he condescended to her. He actually thought they were nice.

They walked a while longer, and Hermione implored, "Can we take a little break? I need to go to the bathroom".

"Is there a bathroom in the forest, Hermione?" he smiled.

"Fine, I have to go pee, okay? Now wait here while I go find a tree to stand behind so I can take care of my little problem." She started to walk away from him, but he pulled on her arm.

"Can you wait just a little while?" he asked.

"I suppose, but why?" she asked back.

He didn't want to tell her why, but he had a funny feeling all of the sudden that they were not alone. He didn't say anything, but just continued to pull her along the path.

They walked a while longer, deeper and deeper in the forest, which was getting darker and darker. He still had her hand, and she pulled him to a stop. "I really have to go to the bathroom now, Malfoy!" she said urgently.

"Well, hurry up. Just go behind that tree there, and I'll turn around." He pointed toward a tree.

Hermione would have argued, because she didn't want to use the bathroom that closely to him, but she decided not to dispute the point. Besides, she really did have to go. She went behind a tree and pulled down her pants. When she finished, she thought she saw something moving in the trees, but wasn't sure. She walked back to Malfoy, and was about to tell him that she thought she saw something, when all of the sudden she thought she heard the distinct sound of a stream. So instead, she said, "I think I hear a stream, Malfoy. In 6th year, Neville and I collected several species of flowers for Herbology, and we found the Aspergilla by a stream."

"Shut up, Granger," Malfoy told her. She looked up at him and was about to tell HIM to shut up, when his hand flew over her mouth and he hissed, "I said shut up!" She was about to bite his hand, when she finally realized why he told her to be quiet. He looked at her and saw from the fear in her eyes, that she heard finally heard the noise as well.

It started as a low growl, and then turned into a louder howl. She looked back up at Draco, but he was not looking back at her. He was looking over her shoulder. He grabbed her hand quite suddenly, and just yelled one thing… "RUN!"

**Wednesday ****Noon****:**

He started to pull her in the direction they had just come. The forest was so deep with so much undergrowth that it was hard to stay on the path, and it was even harder to run. They both stumbled a few times and Hermione even completely tripped over a root at one point. He lifted her up as if she weighed nothing, and they ran, and ran, and ran.

He could easily have left her there. He ran twice as fast as she did, but he knew that he would never do that. Never in his life had he been so afraid, and the only reason he was afraid was that Hermione was in danger. He felt he had to protect her before anything else.

They could still hear the beast. They were both sweating, and the sweat from their exertion mingled with the sweat from their fear. After about 20 minutes, they came to a small clearing, and Draco came to a complete stop. He bent over with a terrible stitch in his side. She came to a complete stop as well, because she ran directly into him, and again toppled over. This time, he didn't try to help her up. He just looked at her, and implored her with his eyes to stand. She understood, and hurried to stand back up. Her hair was matted and had leaves and twigs in it. His hair was sticking to his brow. They both had small cuts and abrasions on their faces and arms, from offending trees and shrubs. Finally, Hermione spoke; "Was that what I thought it was."

Still breathing hard, he answered, "Yes."

"Do you think it is gone?" she asked.

"No," he answered back.

"Can we out run it?" she implored.

Again, he just answered, "No."

"We can't use magic against it!" she exclaimed, "We are in serious trouble."

He finally stopped breathing hard and took a quick look around. He saw a massive oak tree in front on them. "We can't use magic against it, but we can use magic to escape it," he said as he conjured a rope ladder, which fell from the tree, and he started to climb.

"Malfoy! I'm not strong enough to climb up a rope ladder!" Hermione hissed quietly.

"Yes you are, now get your arse up here!" he hissed back. When he finally reached a very high, but very strong looking branch, he sat down. He put his bag across his chest, so it wouldn't fall off his shoulder, reached down his hand to her and said, "Hurry up, Hermione!"

Sure enough, they both soon heard the same low growl they heard before. She was so scared that she felt frozen to that spot. He started to climb back down the ladder to get her when the creature appeared.

Hermione turned around and saw its eyes first. They were gold. The creature stood over six feet tall. She whispered up to Malfoy, "Stay where you are. Stay safe!"

Malfoy's only thought was 'we are totally fucked.' Why didn't he insist she climb first? Some boyfriend he was. He would have to tell Potter that Hermione sacrificed herself to save him. Yeah, that would sound great.

Hermione stood stock-still and looked directly in the eyes of the beast. She thought to herself that she hoped it killed her swiftly and without causing too much pain. The creature started circling the tree. Hermione leaned her back up against the tree, as close as she could. She was trying to remember anything she could about Manticores, for that was what the creature was. She recalled that they were not very smart, but were terribly wild. She also knew that its tough skin would repel most charms. This was also a male Manticore, which meant it may not cause Hermione any harm, but it would certainly kill Draco. She said quietly to Draco, "Don't you dare come out of that tree. It's a male, and it will kill you." Draco realized that she was right, and there was a chance it may not hurt Hermione. The creature finally stopped circling directly in front of Hermione.

It could smell her fear. She knew it. It leaned close to her and smelled her hair. She closed her eyes. She had never been so afraid in her life. Draco didn't know what to do. He couldn't let that thing hurt her, but he knew that like most magical creatures, it couldn't be Stupefied. In addition, they could not apparate out of the Forbidden Forest. When the creature took a few steps back from Hermione, Draco let out a small breath. That was a mistake. The Manticore, with its human face and lion body, looked up in the tree, and saw Draco. It pushed Hermione to the ground, and tried to climb the tree to reach him. Draco started yelling at Hermione to see if she was all right. She appeared to be out cold. He thought for only a second, and decided that if he was going to die, at least he was not going to die a coward, so Malfoy jumped down from the tree and landed almost right on top of Hermione.

The Manticore turned to look at Malfoy, as Malfoy started to back away. The creature stepped over Hermione's body ('Hopefully not dead body', Draco thought), and when the creature was only two meters from Draco, he reached for him and Draco closed his eyes to prepare for death.

A few seconds later, when death didn't come, Draco opened his eyes to see that Hermione had transfigured the rope ladder that Draco had used to climb the tree, into chains, and with magic, she started to bind the creature. She yelled, "This won't hold him for long, we have to get out of here."

Draco ran toward Hermione, grabbed her hand, and started again to run away from the offending creature. He looked back once more, and then stole a quick glance at Hermione and he said, "You're my hero".

After running what felt like forever, they finally stopped to rest. They were lost; Draco was sure, for they were now so deep in the forest that there wasn't even a path anymore. They both sat down and drank some water. He asked Hermione, "So, would you rather be here with Scott now, or me? I'm sure he would have been brave and carried you up the ladder. You wouldn't have had to save his arse."

Hermione looked at him, and wondered how he could be so rude at a time like this, but then saw that he looked sincere and embarrassed when he asked her these things. So with equal sincerity in her voice she said, "I wouldn't want to be here with anyone but you, Draco." She was so tired. She fell back, under the tall pine tree they were resting under, and turned over on her side. She turned her head slightly and could not believe what she was seeing. "Draco!" she said urgently, while she sat back up.

"What's wrong?" he said with concern.

"Look." She pointed to something directly under the tree. What incredible irony. Directly under the large pine tree that they decided to rest by was a small batch of flowers with five white petals and red stems, smelling strangely like night blooming jasmine.

**Wednesday, early afternoon in the ****Forest****:**

After picking a large amount of the Aspergilla, and loading her bag with the flower, Draco decided it was best if they didn't waste any more time, and that they should try to find their way out of the forest. He knew he didn't want to be there when it got dark, and he didn't think she would want to be there either.

They continued walking for another hour. Finally, they found the path that would lead them out of the forest. They acted as if they had been lost for days, instead of a few hours. Draco started running toward the path, and yelled, "Finally! We're saved! When I get back to Hogsmeade, I am going to Honeydukes and I am going to buy myself all the candy I can possibly buy, and eat it all at once!"

Hermione ran up beside Malfoy and danced around him, and sang, "When I get back, I'm going to go directly to The Three Broomsticks and have the largest butterbeer they serve and a nice hot plate of food!"

Malfoy, while holding onto Hermione's hand, started running down the path, and said, "When I get back, I'm going to go to The Firefly Inn and take the longest, hottest, bath I can, and then fall directly into bed for a four hour nap!" She laughed at this, stopped running, and hugged him tightly.

He leaned down for her to jump on his back, and she said into his ear, as he was running with her on his back, "I think when I get back I just might join you in that longest, hottest bath, and in that four hour nap".

He stopped running and let her off his back. He was smiling so brightly that Hermione thought he looked like a Cheshire cat. He pulled her into his arms and said, "When I get back, I think I am going to shag your brains out, and give you every reason to have to wear that extra set of knickers you brought." He laughed and continued running toward the end of the forest. When they finally reached the end of the forest, they both collapsed on the ground.

Draco turned his face toward Hermione and she turned her face toward him. They both had large grins on their faces, and they were both breathing heavily. Hermione leaned over Draco and fell on top of him with all of her weight. She lifted her head and kissed him languidly. She kissed him hard and slow and with as much meaning as she could. He put his hands under her t-shirt, directly on the skin of her back. She pulled away from him and said something that totally shocked him, "Am I too heavy for you?" He laughed at this, pulled her back on top of him and kissed her again.

Finally, they pulled apart, and Hermione rolled off him. He touched her hair and asked, "Are you really going to join me in my bath and nap?"

She blushed at this and sat up. He sat up beside her. She asked, "Are you really going to shag my brains out? Would that be so wrong? " She looked away from him timidly, and he stood up and pulled her up by her hands.

He gave her a big hug and said, "As much as I would love to shag your brains out, and as much as I would love to take a bath with you, Miss Granger, I think we both know if we took said bath together, then afterwards there would certainly be no nap taking in the bed. Now, are you really going to join me?" He raised his eyebrows as he asked this.

She smiled at him and said, "I really do need a bath as well, Malfoy, but I think you're right, if we took one together there would be no nap taking later. Maybe we should just bathe, eat, and then floo home. Besides, I might need my brains later, so maybe it wouldn't be a good ideal to 'shag them out of me', huh?" She touched his cheek tenderly, hoping that he didn't think she was just being a tease.

He kissed her fingertips and said, "Let's get back to Hogsmeade before nightfall, my little lion." They walked hand in hand back through the gates of Hogwarts and down the lane toward the village.

After their individual baths, they decided they really did need to take a short nap. Hermione woke first, around 5:00 pm. She woke Draco and said, "I'm starving. Could we really go to the Three Broomsticks and have a meal and some butterbeer before we leave?"

He got up from the bed, and held out his hand, as an answer. They went downstairs, and Draco went to pay for the room. The clerk gave them both funny looks and asked, "Not staying for the night then?" Draco shook his head no. The man looked Hermione up and down and said, "Just needed the room for a few hours then, huh?" Draco threw several galleons at the man and took Hermione's hand to lead her to the Three Broomsticks.

As they entered the bar, he said, "You didn't seem very upset by that clerk at the Inn, Hermione."

"Why would I be upset by the clerk at the Inn?" she asked as she sat down.

"Well, every other time someone in public thought we had just had sex, you seemed to get all bent out of shape, but this time, no response at all," he replied.

She gave him an 'are you serious look' and said, "All the other times you were the one who eluded to others that we were having, or about to have sex. This time, you didn't say anything smart back to the man, so there's no point in being angry. You didn't do anything. You can't be held responsible for his ignorance."

"You are an amazing witch, young lady," he said as he kissed her hand.

"It's about time you realized that, Mr. Malfoy," she smiled back.

They had a very nice meal, more butterbeers then they should have, and at about 8:00 pm they decided to floo home. It had been such a long day. Draco was so tired he felt that he could hardly move. When they arrived at the Ministry, she suggested that they both just floo to their own flats, and get a good night sleep. He agreed to this suggestion and bent to give her a simple kiss goodnight. He went up to one of the Ministry's many fireplaces first and flooed to his flat. Hermione, who watched to make sure he was safely out of sight, decided to go up to her office. She wanted to put the Aspergilla they found safely away and to return the books to her office. It would not hurt for her to go ahead and floo Scott, and let him know that they accomplished their mission. In fact, she was not tired, and was anxious to go ahead and start work, so it would not really hurt anything if she just went ahead and started on the new Verituserm.

_End of Day Six_


	7. Day Seven Thursday

**all characters belong to JKR**

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**Chapter 7: Day Seven Thursday**

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**Day Seven**

**Thursday Morning:**

When Draco Malfoy arrived to work on Thursday morning he was not at all surprised already to find Hermione Granger there. He was not at all surprised to find her in the lab, already hard at work with Scott Cohn by her side. In fact, if he were a betting man, he would have bet 1000 galleons that Hermione probably did not go straight home last night. She probably didn't go home at all. She probably came straight up to the Lab and started working right away.

He decided to let them continue with their work. At about 11:00 am, Hermione and Scott came rushing into Draco's office, both laughing and having a grand old time. Before Scott could tell Draco the good news, Hermione exuberantly said, "We did it, Malfoy. The Aspergilla worked! The new Veritaserum potion can no longer be made ineffective by an antidote!"

"It's true, Draco," Scott exclaimed, "we worked all night, and this morning started conducting tests, and each test came back with 100 percent results. I mean, I know that the Ministry will want us to do some blind studies, and more thorough testing, but as of now it really seems that it works!" Draco stood and shook Scott's hand and came around his desk and gave Hermione a small hug.

"Do you know what this means, Malfoy?" Hermione baited. "It means that all those wizards who are questioned by the Ministry under Veritaserum, and who have taken the Veritaserum antidote before hand, will still be unable to lie! The antidote will no longer be valid. Oh, if only we had this right after the war, so many more Death Eaters could have been brought to justice."

"Slow down, Hermione," Draco laughed as he turned back to Scott, "Cohn, you have your staff write up a report right away, oh, and get a message to both the Minister's office and the Head Auror's office with the good news. They'll want to know about this, too." At this, Scott turned to leave Draco and Hermione alone in the office.

Draco turned back to Hermione and asked, "Did you even go home and go to bed last night?" He walked up to her, and put his arms around and kissed her forehead.

"Well, I went home to change and feed the cat, but then I came straight back here," she said humbly, while putting her arms around his neck and kissing his mouth chastely.

"Go home, Granger, right now! Get some sleep, and take a shower. In fact just take the rest of the day off," Draco told her as he let her go and walked back over to sit at his desk.

"But, I should help Scott with the reports, and we may need to do more test," she argued.

Scott had just walked back into Draco's office and turned to her and said,  
"Hermione, you did more for this project than you could possibly know. Take a well-deserved break. All of this will still be here tomorrow. Anyway, surely you want to rest before the Ministry dinner tonight," and with that said, Scott left Draco's office again, still mumbling about their accomplishments.

Hermione turned to Draco and inquired, "There's a Ministry dinner tonight?"

"Yes. Did you not get the memo? It went out last week," Draco said, without really looking at her. He started moving papers around on his desk.

"Last week I was still working at my old job, and O'Brien always made sure that I DIDN'T receive interdepartmental memos," Hermione groaned. She sat in the chair across from Draco's desk and stared at him.

He finally looked back up at her and said, "What are you still doing here? I thought you were taking the rest of the afternoon off."

"Are you going to the dinner tonight, Malfoy?" she asked hesitantly.

"Probably," he replied curtly. He then stood up, went over to the table in his office, and started looking through some papers there.

"How long have your known about this dinner?" Hermione, who was still seated, asked. What she wanted to ask was 'were you planning on asking me to go with you?' Although, she didn't ask that last part.

"What?" Draco wasn't paying attention to her, or at least he wanted Hermione to think he was not paying attention.

"Nothing, never mind. Have fun at the dinner tonight, Malfoy," Hermione said begrudgingly, as she stood to leave. She had almost reached the door when Draco grabbed her from behind.

"Wear something pretty tonight Hermione so that all the men at the dinner with be jealous of the fact that I have the best looking witch of the whole Ministry on my arm. Look pretty enough so that all the witches will wish they were you, and sexy enough so that all the wizards will wish they were me." He kissed the side of her neck, and then tickled her ribs.

"You prat," she turned and slapped his arm. "Does that mean you want me to go with you?"

"Sometimes you are denser than a piece of plywood, Granger," Draco told her.  
"Go home, take a nap for a couple of hours, and then meet me at 'Paragons' at 3:00 pm, and we'll buy you something pretty to wear. The dinner doesn't start until 8:00 pm, so you should have plenty of time to get ready."

"Where is 'Paragon's?" Hermione asked with a frown on her face.

"You've never heard of 'Paragon's Perfect Formalwear' before? It's in Diagon Alley," he said as he stroked the side of her face.

"Wait a minute. That's a very posh store where you need an appointment to even shop there. I can't buy anything there, Malfoy," she grimaced.

"Who said you were buying? I'm totally paying for your gown, gloves, shoes, purse, undergarments, everything, tonight, Granger. As I said, you'll be on the arm of Draco Malfoy, and I for one have certain standards to live up to that do not include white cotton granny panties." He kissed her on the forehead, and then started to shove her toward the door.

"By the way, you never returned those knickers, Malfoy," she said as he shoved her out his door.

He walked up to the door, leaned on the frame, smiled at her, and said, "Consider them my token from our trip to the forest, Granger. You know, something from you, to me, that when I look at them, I will always remember that wonderful night of passionate lovemaking we shared in the Forbidden Forest," he trailed off as he shut the door.

She wondered what he was going on about, and before she could ponder it further, she turned around and ran directly in to the chest of one Mister Harry Potter, and he did not look happy. Damn, that Draco. He must have seen that Harry was there when he said that. Once again, he embarrassed her in public regarding all the sex that they _were not_ even having. Wanting to appear nonchalant, Hermione asked, "What brings you down here, Harry?"

"You had sex with Malfoy in the Forbidden Forest?" he barked, while still staring at Draco's closed door.

"Of course not, don't be ridiculous. We've not even had sex yet. Draco was just trying to get a rise out of you. Now, what can I do for you my fine friend?" she said as she hugged him.

Hermione's bright mood lessened Harry's anger and he hugged her back. "I just got a message from Scott Cohn that you both had finished the new Veritaserum potion, and that is appears to make the Veritaserum antidote completely inert. Is this right, Hermione?"

"Oh, Harry, I can't believe it, can you? I'm so happy. I had an idea, I acted on this idea, and it actually worked! Finally, I am doing a job that actually has some purpose!" she gleamed. She hugged him again and finished, "Scott's in the lab. He'll explain it all to you. I need to go home and get some rest, and then Malfoy and I are going shopping for the Ministry dinner tonight. Are you and Ginny going?"

"As much as I hate these things, yes, we are. Actually, you and Malfoy are slated to sit at the same table as us. Draco requested the seating arrangements himself last week, so we'll see you there. Oh, and Hermione, again, congratulations, but you know that I always knew you would do great in this job," he said, as he smiled at her and turned to walk through the door to the lab.

Hermione went to her office to get her things. She wondered how Harry knew that she and Malfoy were slated to sit at his table tonight, when SHE did not even know about this dinner until ten minutes ago. Another odd thing was that Harry said Malfoy requested that Draco and her sit at Harry's table last week. She was not even working for him last week. Well, it was best not to think about it too much. Hermione grabbed her things, went to the lobby, and went home.

**Thursday early afternoon:**

She was still asleep when she heard knocking at her door. Oh no, was it already 3:00 o'clock? She looked at her watch. No, it was not 3:00 o'clock. It was 20 minutes after. She was supposed to meet Malfoy at 3:00 pm. She was late and that was he at the door. She had only slept for about 45 minutes. After she got home, she showered and washed her hair, ate some lunch, fed her cat, and by the time she laid down, it was already 30 minutes after 2:00 pm. She should not have slept at all. A little bit of sleep always made her feel worse than no sleep at all. She also had the beginnings of a massive headache. She went to open her door, motioned for Draco to enter, and without a word went to her bathroom's medicine cabinet to look for a headache potion. He followed her to the loo and said, "What's wrong? You were supposed to meet me at 3:00 pm. I made this appointment at Paragon's last week, and they don't take kindly to people being late for their appointments."

"I ended up with only a 45-minute nap, and when I woke up, I had a massive headache. Let me just take this potion, and I'll be right out." Hermione shut the bathroom door and took the potion. If she was of a better frame of mind, she might have wondered how he knew to make an appointment for her to get a new gown a week ago, when she was only told about the dinner that day.

"Hurry up, Hermione!" Draco implored as he was practically pulling Hermione out of her flat. She took the headache potion, and while it helped some, she still felt a twinge of a headache, and she was very tired. Draco disapparated them directly to Paragon's.

Draco rang a buzzer that was located outside the door, and a snobbish looking woman answered. "Mr. Malfoy, you're late!" she said in a singsong voice, "If it wasn't for the fact that you are you, and that you made this appointment last week, well, we wouldn't even let you inside."

That reminded Hermione; she turned to Draco as they walked into the store and said, "How did you make this appointment for me to get a dress for the Ministry's dinner, as far back as last week, when I only started dating you this week? Also, how did you know I would even go to the dinner, seeing that I didn't know about it until today?"

"Granger, Granger, Granger. You think too much," he smiled.

"That doesn't answer my questions," Hermione reprimanded.

"Isn't she beautiful, Miss Eileen?" Draco asked the snobbish woman.

"Yes, indeed, and I have already taken the liberty of picking out a few dresses for her to try on. I hope they all fit. I remembered her size from the dress you bought her last Saturday," Miss Eileen stated, as she went to get a rack full of dresses from another room.

Things were getting more and more curious, Hermione thought. She would not be appeased. Malfoy was going to answer her questions. Her head was starting to hurt again from trying to figure out the entire thing. As soon as Miss Eileen returned with the dresses, Hermione said to her, "Would you mind giving us a few moments?" to which the older witch just huffed out of the room.

"Draco Malfoy, are you my stalker or something?" Hermione asked plaintively.

"You're talking rubbish, Granger. How do you like this green gown? Isn't green your favorite colour?" Draco held up a green beaded gown.

Hermione, who was in no mood for games, and wanted answers to her questions, said squarely, "Draco Malfoy, you will answer my questions now, or I will leave and never come back. How did you make this appointment for me to try on dresses last week, when we were not even dating yet? In addition, Harry told me you put in for us to share a table with him and Ginny last week. How did you know I would go to this thing with you last week, when we weren't yet seeing each other? I wasn't even working for you last week. I didn't even know about this bloody dinner until this afternoon," she rambled on, while walking in circles around him, "and one last thing, Malfoy, how did you know my dress size last Saturday, to pick out that dress for me that I wore to our first date?"

"Are you done talking?" Draco said dryly, while looking at his fingernails.

"Draco Malfoy, don't be condensing! I will not be treated like a child, or an imbecile. Please answer my questions!" she screamed.

"I think this silver dress would look lovely with your skin tone," he said to humour her, while holding up the silver dress.

"I still think I hate you sometimes!" she bellowed, as she pushed him out of the way and walked out of the store.

He caught up with her before she could apparate away, and said, "Don't be rude, Hermione, it's very hard to get an appointment in that store, and they don't just see anyone you know." He seized her wrist and tried to pull her back down the street.

"Malfoy, if you don't let go of me the Stupefying hex I threw at you the other night will be nothing compared to what I will do to you now." She was serious.

"Fine, Hermione, sit down here and I'll try to answer your questions. You have five minutes." He sat on the curb and patted the pavement beside him.

"Fine, Draco!" she mocked him and then sighed as she sat. "First question, how did you know my dress size?"

"In all honesty, I asked the girl Weasley aka Potter," he responded.

"When did you ask her this?' Hermione inquired.

"The day I found out about the Ministry Dinner, which again in all honesty, was one week before the interdepartmental memo even went out," he told her.

"How did you know I would even go with you?" she asked more calmly.

"I didn't. I just hoped. I had already put in for your transfer to my department, and I thought you would have already been working for me by the time the memo came out. I had no idea it would take me three weeks to get you transferred," he answered.

"This is going well. I'm pleased with all your answers so far," Hermione began, "Why did you just tell me about the dinner today?"

"I rather forgot about it, if truth were known. I just remembered when Cohn mentioned it. I have been rather busy this week, you know. And by the way, I am not some prisoner being interrogated under your new Veritaserum, Granger, so please stop acting as such." He was getting annoyed. "Pleased with my answers so far," he mocked her and added, "Honestly woman."

"One last question," she said, "are you my stalker?" At this last question, she pushed her shoulder into his, and laughed, and stood up and offered him her hand to help him stand.

"Yes, I am your stalker, Granger, and I don't need help up, you mean little witch," he said. He stood up and walked back to the door of the shop, and motioned for her to follow.

After only a quarter of an hour in the store, Hermione found the perfect dress. It was a turquoise, calf length, silk dress with black lace over the silk. It had a full skirt and a cinched waist. It was very pretty and it made Hermione smile. She also bought some new lingerie (much to Draco's chagrin), and black ballerina slippers. She insisted on buying the lingerie herself, even though it was more money than she made in an entire month, because Malfoy made some type of comment about how he had better get to see her model whatever he was purchasing. When they left the store, Hermione and Draco forgot that they were even angry at each other, and walked arm in arm down Diagon Alley.

When they arrived back at her flat, he handed her the packages, and gave her a small kiss goodbye. "I'll see you in a couple of hours, Hermione," he said over his shoulder as he waved goodbye. Hermione went into her apartment to get ready for the dinner.

**Thursday Evening:**

Draco and Hermione walked arm in arm into the banquet hall where the Ministry dinner was taking place. The whole room sparkled. As they walked in, Hermione was completely oblivious to the stares they were attracting. Draco was not. He thought to himself that some people were staring because Hermione looked so beautiful, and some were staring because they were together. It didn't matter. Let then all stare. Malfoy thought they looked perfect together and that everything was finally right in his world.

They sat down at their table, Hermione taking the seat next to Harry's seat. They started to eat, and were enjoying some wonderful conversation, when Percy Weasley came over to their table, with Scott Cohn, and Scott's wife.

"Hello, Harry, Draco, Hermione. Hello my pretty little sister," Percy said to Ginny, "How is everyone tonight?"

Everyone said, "Fine", "great", or some other affirmative response. Scott and his wife sat down, and he introduced her to everyone. Percy said, "Congratulations again, Scott and Draco, on the work you did on the new Veritaserum. This is just the kind of positive thing we need at the Ministry right now. Well, I must go make a few announcements. I'll return to your table later," he promised, and then he left.

Harry leaned over to Hermione and whispered in her ear, "Why didn't he congratulate you as well. After all, you kind of cracked the whole thing, didn't you?"

"Probably just an oversight," Hermione answered back.

The dinner was in full swing when the Minister of Magic walked up to the podium. He spoke for a while about some boring things, then yapped away about some up coming events, and then he told them all he had some great news. "One of the more exciting things I have to mention to you all, is that after many months of hard work, our Potion's Department has finally come up with a new formula for Veritaserum, which no known antidote can undermine. I would like to take this moment to recognize their hard work, and especially to thank Scott Cohn and Draco Malfoy, for finally completing the project. Scott finally found just the right ingredients, and Draco himself went into the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts to secure them! Now that's dedication. Gentlemen, stand and take a bow."

Draco looked down at Hermione as he stood, and saw her hurt expression. Scott stood and started waving at everyone who was applauding. Harry Potter, who _did not_ clap his hands even once, glared at Draco, and then looked at Hermione, who seemed close to tears.

After the applause died down, the Minister made a few more remarks, and then told everyone to tuck in and enjoy.

When Draco sat down, he again looked at Hermione, who was looking at her plate. Her hands were folded on her lap, and when he reached under the table to grasp one, she pulled them away. She got up, excused herself from the table, and headed toward the lady's room, with Ginny close behind.

Harry spoke first, "You're a bloody bastard, Malfoy. So are you, Cohn. I know you have both worked hard on this damn project for the last couple of months, but you wouldn't even have solved the problem if it wasn't for Hermione, and yet she gets no recognition at all. Moreover, it's not as if you went to the Forbidden Forest by yourself, Malfoy, and you sure as hell wouldn't have gotten out alive if it wasn't for Hermione! You both make me sick." Harry stood up, threw down his napkin and left the table.

Draco caught up with Harry outside in the hallway and said, "Always one for the theatrics aren't you, Potter?"

"Shut up, Malfoy, before I shut you up. I knew you were just using her. You were using her to further your career. I knew you weren't sincere. This has been one long orchestrated act, hasn't it, Ferret?" Harry said, as he pushed Malfoy, and drew his wand.

"If you touch me again, you will be know as the 'Boy who Lived' to be killed by Draco Malfoy," Draco snarled with a low voice as he too whipped out his wand.

Ginny came out of the lady's room and said, "Both of you stop this right now! You're Ministry employees, and you will not draw your wands here. Harry, let's go home. Draco, go back inside the hall."

"Don't tell me what to do, little red," Malfoy told Ginny. Harry tried to get to Draco again, but Scott had come out into the hall and pushed Harry back.

"Listen, Potter, Draco and I have worked very hard on this. We gave Hermione the proper credit to her face, but why should she get all the public credit? We would have eventually figured out the proper ingredients."

Now Harry felt like hitting Scott. Draco said to Harry, "Yeah, Potter, I guess we're not any better than you. After all, did you ever give Hermione any credit, in all the years you've known her? All the years in school, she helped you and the redheaded dimwit with your homework, and all the times she figuratively saved your arse. And how about during the war, I was there. I know how you all treated her like some fragile heirloom, which was too weak to do any real fighting, even though if it weren't for her brains, you probably would not even have won. Hell, Potter, just because you feel guilty for treating her like shite for 12 years, don't get on us about it. I know that in school she was a little Miss Know-it-all, who absolutely wetted her pants every time she would be acknowledged by a teacher, but I don't think she even cares about that kind of thing anymore, Scarhead, so why get your wand in a knot about it?"

Harry had seriously had enough, and had his wand back out in a flash, when Hermione, whom no one had even noticed had come out of the bathroom, spoke. "That's enough from all of you. Harry, Ginny, please just go home. I love you both, but this is between me, Draco and Scott." Ginny hugged Hermione goodbye, Harry gave her a kiss on the cheek, turned and rammed his shoulder into Draco as they left.

Scott spoke first. "Listen, Hermione, I don't want any hard feelings. I really like you and I want to continue working with you. I hope you'll want to keep working with me. I don't feel I need to apologize, because the whole department worked hard on this project, and Percy only singled out Draco and me because we are the heads of the Department. Also, don't be too hard on Draco here. I knew Percy was going to make this announcement tonight, because I suggested it to him. Draco knew nothing about it. Now, I must go join my wife." He walked by Draco, and patted him on the shoulder and said, "See you at work tomorrow." He then turned to Hermione and added, "You look very beautiful tonight. I hope to see you tomorrow as well."

Draco looked at Hermione and before she could say anything, he said to her, "You have asked a lot of question of me tonight. May I ask one of you?"

She merely looked at him wearily, and nodded. She was tired of this. She did not want to fight anymore.

"Do I now have to defend myself to you, even though I have done nothing wrong, or are you going to take what Cohn said, which is the truth mind you, at face value?"

After seriously thinking about his question for a moment, she said, "You have nothing to defend to me, Malfoy, but could you tell me just one thing? Do you really think so little of me that you think I would have let myself be used by Harry and Ron during school and the war, and that they thought so lowly of me to do so? Do you really think so lowly of me? They're my friends, which is something you'll never understand. They love me. They didn't use me anymore than I would have let them use me. The only one who treated me like shite for all those years, was you, Malfoy. The only one, whom I feel used by, is you." Hermione turned away from Draco, and started to cry. She ran from the hotel and started to run down the street when he caught up with her.

He pulled her around to face him and said, "How have I used you, Granger? By giving you a job that you apparently enjoy and which you do quite well. By buying you things, and taking you places, and enjoying every minute or every day with you. Have I used you by loving you, Hermione? Because, I do, I bloody well love you. Does that make me the bad person again? Am I once again 'Big Bad Malfoy' because I love you?" He was so angry that he was actually turning red.

She looked up at him through her tears and inquired, "You love me? You really love me?"

"Well, ten points to Miss Granger for her wonderful deduction skills. What made you finally figure that one out, the fact that I just spelled it out so plainly?" he argued.

"I love you, too," she said, while turning her back to him.

"You have a funny way of showing me," he said harshly. She could tell he was still angry.

She turned back toward him and said, "So, you love me apparently, and I supposedly love you as well. What do we do now? Continue to fight out here on the street, or go back to your flat and make love?"

"WHAT?" he asked truly shocked. She probably really said something different, and he just imagined the whole 'making love' part.

She shouldn't have said that. It was the first thing that popped in her head, but she really should not have said that. He apparently was still angry and therefore appalled by her suggestion. "If you don't want to, we don't have to," she said as she started to walk away from him.

"Come back here you stupid, stupid girl," he yelled at her as she started walking away. She turned back around and now had her wand out and pointed directly at him, when he said, "Oh, right, I forgot, I get hexed every time I call you stupid. What I meant to say was, of course I want to go back to my flat and make love, you silly girl." He took her wand from her, bent his head down, kissed her, and with his arms wrapped around her, disapparated them both to his flat.

**Thursday Night at Draco's:**

Draco had wanted to know what Hermione felt like, tasted like, and looked like, for such a long time, probably even years. He even craved to know what she smelled like. He grew excited with the expectation that he was finally about to find out.  
He craved this woman. He loved this woman.

They arrived at his flat and walked hand in hand into his bedroom. He was so nervous, he felt like this was his first time. She was so nervous that she honestly felt like crying. Her throat felt tight and her heart was pounding out of her chest. He pulled her close and kissed her on her mouth, and she thought she was melting. Something, which resembled need, filled them both, as the urge to captivate her overwhelmed him. She touched his chest, the heat from her hand scorched his skin even through his shirt, and his reaction sent chills down her spine. He held her close and could feel her taut nipples through her clothing. She could feel his hard need through his. Soon she softly caressed him everywhere with her delicate hands, which burnt every part of him, especially the part that was hard for her.

He kissed her as if his life depended on it. He could smell her sweet scent, and it intoxicated him. He needed completely to drink her in until he was utterly sated.

He dropped his head and captured her lips. No one would ever taste like her. She tasted like perfection. She tasted like home. She was fragile, that much he knew, and as they stood there, he wrapped his arms around her, lifting her so her feet were inches from the floor, and he knew that for this moment, and for perhaps each moment after this, she was completely his.

The feel of his hot breath on her cool skin set on her fire. Only Draco could fill the emptiness that was inside her body and soul. She leaned her head to the right and his raw scent invaded her senses. She felt his searching lips brush against her bare neck, and she groaned. His voice was deep and full of desire, as he returned her groan and then he pulled away from her luscious lips and asked, "Do you want me to stop?"

"No," she said with a slight tremor in her voice. His hard arms continued to envelope her and their tongues danced with wild desire. She craved to have his hard muscles pressed against her. She felt as if that was all she ever wanted. Her hands started to explore his chest, his back, his face. He put her feet back on the floor and as he pushed away from her so that he could tear off his jacket. He was overwhelmed with hunger for her. She massaged him through his trousers, and he was rock hard under her hand. He began to shake with desire.

Needing to touch her, and taste her, he reached around and unzipped her dress. It fell off her shoulders as if inviting him to continue. He felt desperate for her. He kissed his way down her jaw and neck, and the sensation sent shockwaves down her entire body. He jerked off his shirt, and unzipped his pants. He wanted to feel skin on skin. Each nerve ending in his body was throbbing for her touch.

He backed her knees to the side of his bed, and she collapsed on top of it. He slid her up toward the headboard and fell next to her. He started to explore her body. He could not believe how soft she was. He was fascinated with every part of her. He hesitated before he touched her breasts. She still had on her bra and panties and he was cautious to remove those last barriers. He would wait for her to remove them.

He touched the swell of one breast with one hand, his thumb touching the nipple through the silk. She wiggled under his touch, and that was his undoing. He could not wait for her, so he reached around and undid the clasp of her bra. He bent his head down to kiss the valley between her breasts, and then he kissed the nipple of one breast, while cupping the other one in his hand.

Draco could not wait to see her completely naked. All she had left was her black panties. He didn't know if he had enough resolve to let her remove them, or if he would let his primeval urges overtake him and rip them off her himself. He gently reached down to brush his fingers between her legs, and she felt she could no longer think straight. He massaged her with his thumb through that last barrier, until she was completely drenched with desire.

He moved to lay on top of her, separating her legs with his knee. He moved his lips once more to each swollen breast, which ached to be kissed. He flicked his tongue back and forth over each mound, his breath and tongue burning her flesh.

She moaned again and said his name. He placed his hand between them again to ease the ache that she felt from wanting him inside her. He continued to stroke her until she was on the verge of orgasm. Thrusting her hips to him, she realized that his hand was bringing her more pleasure than she had ever felt in her life. Wouldn't having him inside her bring her even more pleasure? She reached down and kicked off her panties.

He continued to kiss and lick her naked body. He took off the remainder of his clothing and they continued to make love. Feeling the warm sensations that his body was bringing to her, she again cried out his name again. Needing to envelope her fully, his hand went again to the junction between her thighs and he sank his fingers into her. She was so wet and ready. He played with her like this for a while, watching the pleasure he was giving her with each new expression on her face. He continued to stroke her, and when he saw she was beginning her orgasm, he slid himself into her.

This one single act pierced her very soul. She held his hips, urging him to go faster. She rocked her hips under him and begged to seek the peace that his closeness offered. He quickened his strokes until that final moment of pleasure blinded them both in utter ecstasy. Lifting his hips one last time, he buried himself for the final moment, and then collapsed on top of her.

After a moment, he pulled out of her and settled next to her on the bed. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She shivered beside him as she came down from her high. Afraid of ever letting her go, he held on to her tight. They soon fell asleep in each other's arms.

_End of Day Seven_


	8. Day Eight Another Friday

**all characters belong to JKR**

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**Chapter 8: Day Eight Another Friday**

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**Day Eight  
**  
**Another Friday:**

He awoke the next morning before she did. He hugged her body closer to him, to make sure that she was real, and that what happened last night wasn't just a dream. He wanted to stay like this forever. He never wanted to lose her. When she finally awoke, she looked up in his eyes and shyly said, "Good morning."

It _was_ a good morning. He smiled at her and kissed her lips. He wanted to cry at the joy of touching her. He felt as if he had been numb his whole life, and she finally made him able to feel. He kissed her again, and then said, "Good morning to you, too."

"What time is it?" she asked.

"Still early, so don't worry, Miss Granger, you won't be late for work," he laughed.

"Good, because I have a lot of work to do, and then I was hoping my boss would let me leave early today, because I have a big date tonight," she said, then she turned to face him and put her hands on his chest.

He leaned over to kiss her again and asked, "Anyone I know?"

She laughed and answered, "Just my LOVER." To which they both laughed.

"Oh, I remember now," he joked, "you and I have had this long standing date planned since last week, haven't we? The one where I have three important questions to ask you, and then apparently I have one promise to make you."

"Yep," she said, "that's the deal." As she lay with her head on his chest, she said, "You could just end the suspense, and ask your questions now. I'm a rather captive audience at the moment, you know."

He kissed the top of her head, and said, "Frankly, you're such an open book, that I feel I already know the answers to my first two questions. In fact, you already answered one of them last night."

She sat up, pulled the sheet around her, and turned to face him and said, "Oh really now. I'm that transparent am I? Well, mister, you're not the only smart one here. I also already know what the first two questions you were going to ask me are, and if I were you, I wouldn't be so sure of my answers, and which one did I answer last night?"

He laughed and pulled her back to him and said, "Oh, if you really don't know, then I'm really not going to tell you, and believe this, if you already know the questions, then I really already know the answers."

"Well, then since the first two questions are already implied, why don't you go ahead and ask the third one," she implored, as she stroked his chest.

He said, "No, really, Hermione, dazzle me with your seer ability, and tell me what you think that question is." He was running his hand up and down her arm.

She laughed as her head was buried in this neck, and said, "You know, as long as the question isn't, 'will you marry me?', then I don't frankly care what you ask." She started kissing his neck.

He suddenly felt a constricted pain settle in his heart at the words she had just said. _As long as the question isn't, 'will you marry me_?' Afraid of losing her, and at this point unsure of how to respond, he just held her close, trying to forget what she had just said. He told her, "Let's go back to sleep." He held her until her breathing became slow and steady, and he knew that she was sleeping once more. He gently moved away from her, looked down at her sleeping form and said so softly, so that she would not hear, "That was undeniably the final question." He stood up and walked out of his bedroom.

Hermione awoke from a sound sleep, and for the briefest of moments, she was utterly confused. She was in her own bed. She knew in her soul that last night was not a dream, and neither was this morning. She was in Draco's bed. She knows she was. How did she end up back in her own? She called out his name, and he didn't respond. She got up and looked around her apartment for Draco or for at least some type of note from him, but could find neither. She threw on a robe and went to her fireplace to try to floo him, but he wasn't home. This was confusing. Did she do something wrong last night. What was going on here?

She went ahead and got a shower, and then dressed. It was almost 8 o'clock so she decided to go on to work. She would have to see him there.

Last night, cradled in his arms and watching him sleep, she felt so blissfully happy. She thought he felt happy as well. She couldn't be wrong. As she headed toward the lifts to go to her floor, she thought about the fact that she had only been dating him a week. She had only worked for him for five days. It seemed like an eternity, but in reality, it was such a short time. She felt like she had been in love with him all her life.

She walked out of the lift and started toward her department. Instead of going directly to her own office, she walked toward his. He had to love her as much as she loved him. He had to, but she had a very bad feeling about all of this.

She opened his office door, and saw nothing. No Draco, or lights on, or even a single piece of paper on the desk. Even odder was the fact that all the books that were on the shelves the first day she came here were gone. She walked to the lab, and asked a few people if anyone had seen Draco that morning. After a few negative responses, she thought she would ask if anyone had seen Scott. Again, all she heard from everyone was, "no".

She felt ill to her stomach. Something was definitely off and she didn't know what that was. She went to her office and sat with her head in her hands, not knowing what to think.

After an hour of just sitting and staring at her desk, Harry came running in to her office. "Hermione!" he exclaimed.

"Hello, Harry, what do you need?" she asked with a sad smile.

"He's gone, Hermione," he responded.

"Who's gone?" she asked, although in her heart she knew to whom he meant.

"Draco, he's gone."

She stood from her chair and walked over to him. No, this couldn't be right. "What do you mean, he's gone. Has something happened to him? He isn't hurt is he?" She really became worried.

"No, Hermione!" Harry yelled, "You don't understand. He's gone. He apparently told Percy earlier this week that he was resigning. Then I heard this morning that he came up, cleared out his office, and left. He walked into Percy's office and told him that he was leaving immediately, and that he should promote Scott to his position, and you to Scott's position. Percy was upset. He told me to go find him and tell him that he needed to given them more notice, but when I went to his flat, he wasn't there. The door attendant told me that Malfoy had moved out, and that his cousin or someone was going to sublet the flat. Hell, I even went to Malfoy Manor, but it was closed up tighter than a drum."

Hermione's head was reeling. What was Harry saying to her? Why would Malfoy just leave like that? 'Oh god,' she thought. It was because of last night. He had sex with her, and then decided he didn't love her after all.

She fell to the ground at Harry's feet and began to cry. He picked her up and held her in his arms. She cried for a long time.

"How could he do this to me, Harry?" she cried. "How could he make me love him, make me give myself over to him mind, body and soul, and then leave me? He said he loved me!"

Harry was so angry. He told her, "Malfoy loves no one but Malfoy. Last Friday he came by my flat and we invited him to stay for dinner. He actually asked me for my permission, MY PERMISSION, to start seeing you. He said that he had feelings for you for a very long time. I told him if he even thought about hurting you that I would kill him. I should have killed him that night. I should have told him to leave you the hell alone. He seemed so honest. He acted so genuine. This is my fault, Hermione. I'm so sorry." Harry continued to hold her in his arms.

"But why would he do this? Why would he hurt me like this? What did I ever do to him to make him treat me this way?" she asked him.

"It's probably more of the fact that you exist; the fact that you are good and loving. He can't handle that. He's such a bastard. I'll find him and make him pay for what he's done to you, Hermione," Harry told her. She stopped crying, but he continued to hold her. He finally said, "Why don't you go on home. Percy's offering Draco's position to Scott as we speak. I'll go tell Scott that you need to take the day off. Go home. I'll come by later." He kissed her cheek, and then said, "I love you, Hermione. Please, don't let this past week with Malfoy ruin you. Please." He left her office, and she went back to sit at her desk, and started to cry again.

**Friday Evening, Again:**

She didn't go home. She went back to the place where this whole thing started. She went back to her parents' graves. How was she going to survive this? She could not start to live the same grey life she had before. She would rather not live at all, then to go back to being grey.

After an hour of exhausted tears, she lay on the grave of her dead parents and cried some more. She cried for losing them. She cried for losing Draco, but most of all, she cried for losing herself.

Why give her one week of happiness, just to take it all away from her again? Was life that cruel? She sank back down to the ground, and didn't even notice when a pair of strong arms lifted her up, and carried her over to the stone bench. With her sitting on his lap, her face buried in his chest, and her hot tears melting his heart, he finally spoke the same words he uttered just a week ago, "Tell me, Granger, tell me why you are crying."

She looked up and saw his grey eyes through her tears. He was looking at her sternly, and she thought without compassion, which just made her cry even more. She buried her head into her hands, and sunk deeper into the cradle of his arms. He held her tighter and demanded, "Tell me this instant why you are back here, laying on the cold hard ground, and full of utter despair."

In the softest of voices, she said, "Because my life is grey again."

"Why is your life grey again, Granger?" he asked, as he lifted her off his lap to sit her beside him on the bench.

"You left me," she said.

"So that would make your life grey?" he again asked sternly.

What was he playing? She stood up and through her tears said, "What are you playing at, Malfoy? Why are you playing with my emotions? I'm a human being; maybe a Mudblood to you; but still a human being with a heart, and feelings, and emotions. You cannot just come into my life, promise me things, and then leave! You can't!"

He stood next to her and asked, "What the hell did I promise you, Hermione? You haven't made me promise you anything yet!" He was so angry he felt like hitting her to shut her up. "Why did you think I left you?"

Was he serious? She began, "Well, first we made love last night. I mean, to me it was making love, and it meant more to me than you'll ever know, and then this morning I find myself back in my own bed, you're nowhere to be seen, you quit your job, moved out of your flat, with no word to me at all. So, yeah, that's why I thought you left me, Malfoy." She walked up to him and pushed him hard.

He tried to speak, but she was not done. "I made love to you, Malfoy! That meant something to me! You meant something to me. This last week has probably been the best week of my life….but it was all a lie. Do you hate me that much? Why did you do this to me?" She sat back on the bench, and continued to sob.

"Remember I was going to ask you three questions tonight. Well, I'm going to ask you two of them now, and depending on how you answer, I may or may not ask the third," he said as he grabbed her shoulders to force her to stand.

"You have no bloody right to ask me anything, you bastard!" she yelled.

"Well you know what, I'm going to ask them anyway!" he shrieked back. He moved away from her and held up one finger, "First question, Granger! Last Saturday night on my rooftop, you started to tell me something and then stopped. My first question is, what were you going to say?"

"I'm really not going to answer any of your questions, you bloody prat." She started to walk away, and he pulled her back and pointed his wand at her. "Are you going to hex me now, Malfoy? Treating me like dirt and humiliating me wasn't enough for you?"

"I figured a good hex deserves one back. You hexed me, and now I will definitely hex you back if you don't answer my question, you crazy bint," he said. He walked up closer to her and put the tip of his wand on her chest.

"You are so dead," she murmured.

"Yeah, well tell me something I don't know," he hissed back.

"I hate you!" she screamed.

"Same to you bitch," he bellowed back. He still had his wand pointed at her chest and said, "I'm waiting, Granger."

"Fine you arse-hole. The thing I was going to tell you that night was that I had wanted to be with you for such a long time, and that I couldn't believe we were finally together. Funny, isn't it, Malfoy?" she said through clenched teeth.

He turned to walk around her, without turning his back to her, and when he again faced her, he spoke. "That wasn't too difficult, was it, Granger? Okay, let's get the second question over with, even though it seems obsolete now that you just told me you hated me, but my second question was going to be, do you love me?" He was clenching his jaw so tight that his face contorted in rage.

She said, "Well then, I guess I don't have to answer that one, do I?"

"What would your answer had been if you weren't such a bloody fool, Granger?" he asked caustically.

"Fine, I would have said I loved you, but as you said, that was then and this is now."

"Let's finish this once and for all, Granger, so we can get on with what is left of our feeble, miserable lives," he said as he put his wand away, and then went to stand behind her so quickly, that she lost her balance and he had to put his arms around her to hold her up. He was holding her from behind, so tightly, that she felt like she was in a vise. He put his hot breath next to her ear, and said, "For our encore, tell me what it was that you wanted me to promise you."

She took a couple of breaths, to calm herself, and very slowly said, "You ask me your third question first."

He laughed in her ear and said, "It seems to me that you're not in a position to make demands, Granger."

"And you are in no position to tell me what to do," she retorted back, and then she tried to wiggle out of his grip. He loosened the hold slightly, but only to turn her around to face him. She finally said, "Fine, let's end this right here, right now. You got what you wanted from me. You got your precious potion, you got me to declare my love for you, and you got me to make a fool of myself. You even got my virginity." She glared at him.

He was still holding her, but at this last remark, he let her go and she fell to the ground. He reached out his hand to help her up, but she slapped it away. As she stood up on her own, she said, "That's right, Malfoy, little virginal Granger. You took my virginity. Now you want my dignity, too. Can't you be content with the knowledge that as much as I felt like a big nothing before this all began, I now feel like less than nothing! Fine, if you want me to tell you what I was going to make you promise me, I will. I wanted you to promise me never to leave me, although it's a little too late for that now, isn't it, seeing that you already left. You won, you bastard."

"If I won, Granger, what's the prize? The feeling that someone has taken a dagger and cut my heart out? If I'm the monster that you think I am, then why do I feel such incredible grief and pain? I never set out to hurt you. My goal was to never hurt you again, and if anything, you have hurt me much more than I could ever hurt you!" he spat.

"How have I hurt you?" she yelled back.

"Another stupid question, from a stupid, stupid girl!" he yelled as he grabbed her once more and pulled on her arm, as if to wrench it from its socket. "I wish you would just shut your stupid mouth up!"

"Fine, I'll shut up, but I think you owe me one, Malfoy. I told you what I was going to make you promise me, now you tell me what your last question was," she asked him as she put her hand against his to try to break his grip on her arm.

This time he took a deep breath, and let it out. He let go of her arm, and with words that sounded calmer than he felt, he said, "If I tell you, Granger, will this entire thing end? Will you just let it go? Will you just shut up and let all of this go?"

She just stared at him, without saying yes or no.

"Before I ask you my last question, tell me why you think I left?" He finally realized that she had not yet told him.

"Now who's being stupid?" she snapped. "First, you apparently took me from your bed and left me in mine without even telling me goodbye. You quit your job, cleared out your office, and moved from your flat. Then Harry told me…"

Before she could finish that sentence he grabbed her again, this time by the shoulders and asked, "What the hell does Potter have to do with this?"

"He told me that you asked his permission last Friday to start seeing me; he told me that you apparently had feelings for me for a long time. He also told me about you quitting your job, and he said he had looked everywhere for you, but that you were gone, so therefore you were playing both of us. You never loved me. You have to admit the evidence pointed to you leaving, Malfoy!" she yelled back. Then she continued, "You left no note, we made love, and you told me you loved me, but then you just left, as if in a puff of smoke. You were just gone. YOU LEFT ME!"

Hermione was so tired. She walked away from him, sat back down on the bench, and started to cry again.

Malfoy walked up to her, and looked down and said, "You know, I admit that probably didn't look good, but I did not leave you. I needed time to think, true, so I left, but I did not leave you. I quit my job earlier this week. I told Percy I would leave my job by Friday. It's Friday. I arranged to sublet my apartment to my cousin, also earlier this week. Neither of these were rash decisions. I had to apparate you back to your apartment because my cousin wanted to move in today, and I couldn't bear to wake you."

"I know none of this looks good, but it still doesn't mean that I left you. What I said to Potter was true. I have wanted you for such a long time. I did orchestrate all of this to make you see how much I love you. I didn't want to hurt you, but let me tell you, you've hurt me, too. On Tuesday when I took you to Malfoy Manor, do you remember when I told you I had to go get something from the family vault? I went there to get a ring. This ring…" he pulled a ring from his pocket. "It's a ring that my grandfather gave my grandmother for their engagement. I wanted to give it to you, so I'll tell you what that third question is now, Hermione. I was going to ask you to marry me, beg you never to leave me, but after what you said this morning, I knew it was all happening too fast for you. So I just needed time to think, to figure out what to do next, but I DIDN"T LEAVE YOU!"

She looked up at him in confusion, and said, "What did I say this morning?"

He walked over to her and stood her up. "You said you didn't care what the three questions I had to ask you were; as long as one of them wasn't 'will you marry me?'. Since one of them was in fact that very question; well, it shook me a little, because I realized that even though I was ready for marriage, because I have been in love with you for a long time, that one week of dating wasn't long enough for you. Therefore, that's why I had to be by myself for a while. My pride was hurting a bit, and I had to figure out what to do next."

"What did you decide to do next?" she asked quietly.

"Well, I decided that no matter how much time you needed, it wasn't going to change how much I love you, so even if you never wanted to get married, just having you in my life was enough for me." He took her hand and kissed her palm, and said, "When I got back to the office, I went to look for you to tell you all of this, and I couldn't find you. No one knew where you were. When I saw Potter and asked him where you were, he told me to leave you the hell alone. I didn't know what was going on, so I decided to take a chance and see if you came back here. When I saw you, once again on the ground, crying at the foot of your parents' graves, my heart literally shattered in a million pieces. I love you so much, Hermione. I'll not ever leave you, if you'll not leave me. Please, say you'll forgive me and we'll come back from this terrible mistake in one piece again." He wrapped his arms around her and held her for a long time, until her sobs ceased.

Draco finally spoke again, "Hermione, I'll make that promise to you that you wanted me to make. I promise I'll never leave you. If you recall, last Saturday night I already made one promise to you, and that was that I would never make you do anything that you don't want to do, and that includes answering my third question."

Hermione reached up to his face, and cupped his cheek in her hand. She said, "Ask me again, you prat." She moved away from him, crossed her arms, and stared at him. "Well, I'm waiting. Ask your question."

"Is this so you can formally tell me 'no' and then take my heart out and stomp on it and crush it in the ground?" he pondered.

"You are such a drama queen." She rolled her eyes.

He gave her a glare, and said, "I may be a drama queen, but at least I'm not a pain in the arse know-it-all. Honestly, jumping to conclusions about 'people leaving people' without any hard evidence. Granger, as I said before, for a smart witch, you're stupid."

He sat down on the bench, and she sat next to him. "Are you trying to avoid asking your third question by making me hex you again, you self-centered, egotistical, sissy boy?"

He gave her a shove and she fell off the bench. As she stood up, she brushed off her skirt and said, "Expect a cleaning bill in the morning, Malfoy."

"Sorry, Granger, I'm unemployed now, I can't afford cleaning bills. In fact, I seem to be homeless as well. I'll just have to move in with you. Oh, and by the way," he continued, "will you marry me, Granger?" He pulled the ring out of his pocket again, and took her hand to slip it on her finger.

She pulled her hand away and said, "Could you possibly call me by my first name during a marriage proposal, you prat?"

"If you call me a prat again, I might be tempted," he smiled.

"Prat, prat, prat," she said as she moved to sit on his lap.

He again took her hand and slipped the ring on her finger, and said, "Will you marry me, Hermione?"

"Yes," she answered. "You know, I only said that thing about hoping you didn't ask me, because I was so insecure, and I felt like I should let you know that I wasn't expecting a proposal, so you didn't have to offer one." She turned her head and kissed him languidly.

When they finally stopped kissing, he said, "One more question, I didn't really take your virginity, did I?"

"Yes you did," she laughed.

"Well, I really will have to marry you now, to make an honest woman out of you and all. Can't have you going around being a little tart, having sex before marriage, right Granger?"

"I guess so, Malfoy."

They kissed again. They kissed as if it was their first kiss. Draco knew that he could not give her up, anymore than he could give up breathing. When they broke from the kiss, he asked, "What are you thinking?'

All she said was, "What a week it's been."

_(End of Day Eight)_

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_*Be sure to read the second part of the four part series: Another Week in the Life_


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